Hacking the Rules
by MaybeNeh
Summary: When the Citadel Councils hand is forced by the public to punish their top Spectre, Saren Arterius, he's not remotely happy. To make matters worse, he's paired up with the newly graduated Human Spectre, Sam Shepard. The road ahead for the duo is paved with fights, emotional baggage, bloody missions, Romance, and the threat of a rebel group called, The Reapers. (More info inside)
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: **When the Citadel Councils hand is forced by the public to punish their top Spectre, Saren Arterius, he's not remotely happy. To make matters worse, he's paired up with the newly graduated Human Spectre, Sam Shepard. The road ahead for the duo is paved with fights, emotional baggage, bloody missions, and the threat of a destructive rebel group called, Reapers. Slightly, AU and spans over all 3 games. Featuring all our favorite characters.

**Do people still read Mass Effect fanfiction? No matter, feel free to comment, criticize, or just anonymously read. This is my first Fanfiction postings so any pointer would be appreciated. Enjoy. **

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own character and plot idea. The rest are all BIOWARE'S. **_

**Rule #1**

**Don't pick fights with me. **

Saren Arterius damn near ran to the Comm. room in the C-Sec building. After one of his missions on some back water planet outside of Citadel ruled space, he received a message from Councilor Sparatus. He had been worried when he saw the sender. Normally, if the Council were giving an important mission it was sent by the Council, never a single member.

Apparently, his actions on his last mission received negative feedback. Even though he had acquired the Intel he was sent out to find, the way he dealt with the holder of it was reputably wrong, in the eyes of the extranet. He had no idea a disgusting Batarian slaver getting shot in the head would make the rest of that junkie filled, beggared community angry. Saren scolded himself for not paying enough attention to his surroundings. He should have cut out the security cameras feed so that mediocre hacker wouldn't have been able to acquire the footage of him blowing out the Batarian's brains after he handed over the information to him. Even though Saren hadn't slept in 3 days hopping from one mission to the next, all of utter 'importance', he still should have been on his game. He knew better; he was better.

Because of the clips fame the Council was under fire from the public. They wouldn't of course dismiss Saren, but in his opinion they had done something much, much worse.

Saren rounded the corner to the Comm. room and waited angrily as the doors opened to reveal Councilor Sparatus. The brown Turian waited with his hands behind his back. He looked tiredly at the heated Turian before him. He was neither surprised nor angry to see Saren approach with barely hidden fury.

Next to Sparatus was another Spectre, Nihlus Krylik. He knew Saren was an expert at hiding feelings, so to see him like this startled the former trainee, and friend. He scratched the underside of his brown face plates, hiding his worry.

"A PARTNER!? And not even that, your pet human project!" Saren shouted slamming his fist down on the center table.

"Arterius, I do not appreciate the tone." He said to the angry pale faced Turian. "I realize you're angry and even though personally I don't condemn your decision to shoot that Batarian, others do. Now if this was a one time event, this wouldn't have happened. You would get a slap on the wrist if anything, but this is farrrrr from a one time incident from you. And it's about damn time you get punished for it." They all stayed quiet after that. Once Sparatus felt that Saren calmed down at least slightly, he continued, "Now, she is not my pet. She is the first human Spectre, this union of a Turian and Human team can quite possibly ease tension amongst our peoples."

'She? At least that means I don't have to deal with some pig headed male', Saren thought to himself as he went to a standing position. He crossed his arms in front of him turning his clearly angry face, to a frustrated one. "Have you forgotten that I loathe Humans. They're a weak, selfish species that deserves to be pets like Varrens, than have a hand in Council affairs."

"I had no idea you were into something like that, Saren." Nihlus smirked. In response, Saren gave him a disgusted growl.

"I don't approve of being a peace treaty tool." Saren said.

"Like I said before, you need some sort of punishment. She should arrive here in an hour, stick around." Sparatus said as he began fiddling with his Omni-tool.

Nihlus took that as a cue that the meeting was over. He then walked up to Saren and laid a friendly hand on his back, "Come on, why don't we go to the training room and spar with some of the cocky C-sec officers?"

Saren said nothing, but turned around and walked with him. Nihlus knew how angry his xenophobic former mentor was, and yet he was more worried about Saren in this soon to be partnership than Sam. He felt as a smirk rise to his lips as he thought about the possible situations between the two. She was to easy going and self confident to fall for Saren's future jabs to make her angry. Nihlus was actually somewhat hoping to see that today. "Look Saren, Shepard is different from other humans. She's a very skilled infiltrator, very understanding, and polite with aliens. I think you'll be surprised."

"If you're trying to assure yourself that you trained her well enough to my standards, I doubt you have. You know more so than anyone I'm not pleased easily." Saren replied in his typical angry voice.

"Ah! But I didn't really need to train her. She had very strict previous training before."

"And that would be?"

"She can tell you. It'll give you _something_ to talk about." Nihlus laughed.

The two then entered the training room of the C-sec officers. As soon as the Turian's saw them, they prickled with an in bred spark of excitement to be able to spar against two very well known fighters. The humans were excited but, wary. The Slarian's indifferent. The Asari were excited, but cautious. Yet, the two Spectres were just happy to beat some cocky kids into submission.

"I don't need some watch dog!" Saren snarled as he threw a Turian over his shoulder. Then without the slightest of efforts bent forward and dodged a punch to the back of his head. He then reflexively, fell forward and placed both his hands down flat on the mat. With a quick angled side swipe of his left leg, he connected his foot with the underside of the chin of a cloaked Asari. "And how the hell is she supposed to keep up!? She only graduated 3 months ago!" Saren shouted exasperatedly to a seated Nihlus.

Nihlus had thrown in the towel two hours ago. Admittedly, he had become worried about Sam. She was supposed to be here nearly 3 hours ago since it was nearing 4 hours that they had been sparing. He tried to contact her by sending her personal Omni-tool a message, but he never got a reply. Even though he knew she could take care of herself, he was incredibly worried.

He had been compromised in the sense that he cared for the woman. It produced strange intense feelings within him. When the feelings had started, he pushed her away then would pull her back. At one point they consumed him so much that on one of their missions, he wasn't as focused as he should have been.

After they had dispatched a group of mercenaries, the two had found an encrypted data pad. As Sam was decrypting, He had been standing beside her deep in thought about the emotions the human had been deriving from him lately. What he didn't know, was that a stray merc had snuck up behind them and was aiming at him. Before he got shot through the center of his back Sam noticed the merc, and shoved Nihlus out of the way. Unfortunately, she took a bullet through her shoulder. Nihlus quickly shot the merc through the head and ran over to Sam. As soon as he saw the wound, he cried lightly as he applied medi gel to the wound.

He knew that out of respect she didn't say anything until they were safely on his ship. 'Tell me.' Was all she simply said in a soft voice he had never heard her use before. Just that offering of a wanting to know why he was feeling so horridly, made his every well placed blockade fall. He told her everything he felt for her, and unexpectedly, she smiled. A real smile not her usual smirks. 'So you love me' she had stated. He remembered how ridged he went. He had never thought about the possibility of considering her as a mate, or even courting her. And at that moment he still didn't think of her that way, 'I suppose we could try dating.' He replied confused but willing.

Sam laughed and shook her head, 'now we both know you don't like me in that way.' She then sat down next to him on the bench. 'What I meant was that you love me like I was a family member,' he had shook his head no at her, 'hmm maybe more so like a very intense best friend.' He laughed then and nodded relieved that there was a 'name'for what he felt, that she understood.

Suddenly, a Salarian body slide over to him against the ground, causing him to break out of the memory. The poor guy was knocked out cold and there were a few scratch marks from Sarens talons on his cheek, even with the gloves Saren wore. Nihlus then agonizingly looked up at him.

He was furious. The sparring that typically calmed down a Turian was not doing anything for Saren. The more Saren thought about his punishment combined with the fact she was late, making him have to wait for some stupid human, the more infuriated he got, "are you listening to me Nihlus!" Saren snarled.

"How can I not, now?" Nihlus sighed wishing he was the knocked out Salarian at that point.

"Where the hell is your Human whore trainee?!" He demanded. The others in the room tensed and flinched from the tone in his voice.

"I can't be a whore and you should probably stop calling me that. Besides that, I've been here for a bout 10 minutes now waiting for an opening to introduce my self." The voice came from behind a crowed of on lookers and approached to the front, "Hello Saren Arterius, my name is Sam Shepard."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own character and plot idea. The rest are all BIOWARE'S.

**Rule #2 **

**Cheating will cost you, dearly**

Shepard was about 5'7" and tan. A rare skin color, Saren thought, since the humans he typically saw were fully dark, pink, or pale. Her fringe was a short mess of tightly curled strands. It seemed fluffy to Saren and he was tempted to touch the mound of alien fringe, but that instantly left as soon as it came. Shepard's mid section was protruded more than the usual active duty female, as well as her thighs, and breasts if they weren't wrapped as tightly as they seemed to be, under her shirt. Her eyes were brown if he stood straight up, but if he shifted they changed to green in the brighter light. 'What kind of cybernetics did that?' he wondered quietly to himself. She also seemed to wear none of the paints that Asari or human females tended to wear.

"I apologize, but my shuttle was delayed by some pirates. And yes, they were dealt with." She explained with a blank face. She showed no actual regret for her delay, or any other emotion. Just open eyes and relaxed facial features.

By now Nihlus had already stood up and was trying not to look as anxious as he felt, but both Saren and Sam could see right through that.

Shepard then smiled at Nihlus and walked over to him, carefully avoiding Saren, "I'm sorry I didn't get your messages until after we got to the shuttle to dock. Then I had to deal with C-sec..." She trailed off and bent forward pulling Nihlus into a hug.

Relieved to see that she was alright, Nihlus instinctively hugged her back. The tension that he had been holding in his body left him as tightened his grip around her. He had gotten used to humans innocent gestures of affection from all the time he had spent with her. Although he was completely okay with it (even found it enjoyable), he knew Saren wasn't. He could almost _feel_ Saren's immense hate for the human now. "You might want to let go." Nihlus whispered into her ear.

"Why?" She asked surprised. "I didn't know this embarrassed you."

"It doesn't, but Saren is not in the slightest very happy with you."

Shepard nodded and pulled away. Then turned and faced the cold blue eyes of Saren. She couldn't help but feel a shudder run through her spine as she looked at the cold metallic and pale plates of his face. When she had walked past him to hug Nihlus, she noticed how long his fringe was. As well as his cheek plates that tapered out and bent around his face all the way to his fringe. She hadn't seen many Turians before, but the ones she had had never had face plates that stretched that far. Because of its oddity, she couldn't help but want to dissect his face plates and examine how they worked along with his facial muscles.

Realizing how crazy that sounded, she sighed, 'too much time with Salarians,' she concluded. Shepard then looked around and noticed the worried stares from the crowed that looked from her to Saren. She was warned several times from many others about Sarens hatred for the Human species, but from what she observed, his hatred was towards most species. He just openly bashed humans more so.

"Even if you did run into pirates, it should have been easy to deal with them. If you were skilled enough, that is." Saren grunted at Shepard.

"I didn't have my guns. They weren't allowed on the shuttle." She took her combat knife out of her arm sheath. "But I did have this." The knife had a custom handle that curved around her hand, and had extra grip in case she was dealing with a lot of blood. The knife's blade was made out of Iridium, and then was sharpened to the point where just pressing against it would cut you. As she held the light weight knife she was grateful for the going away gift from her family.

Saren walked up to her and with his head bent down and eyes level with hers, he glared. His mandibles moved and clicked as he fought back the urge to yell at her. "Did your idiotic human whore brain forget that you were a Spectre? We are above the law; we don't need to follow stupid insignificant rules."

"Oh? Look where that got you." Shepard said plainly. There was no sense of grandeur behind her voice by insulting a famous Spectre. Neither did she say it as a retort to being offended. No, any of those he could have handled. She just said it honestly, and what made him angry was that she was right. And that, that he couldn't swallow.

With a quick snap of his hand he reached for her throat. But Shepard quickly deflected his grab and hit the soft center of his stomach with the palm of her hand. As he bent forward to suck in air, she jumped backward and slid her knife into her arm sheath. Then she undid the clasps on the arm band, and threw it to Nihlus. Nihlus quickly opened his mouth to interject and even started to walk onto the mat, but he was pushed backward by a minor biotic blast from Saren who had already recovered fully.

Then like two alpha lions battling to be the leader of a pride, both started walking in a circle around one another. "I'll spar with you under one condition, no biotics. As soon as you use them, I get to use my tricks." Shepard stated. The edge of her mouth slowly turned upward hoping for that outcome. Shepard couldn't think of the last time she faced off against a strong opponent.

"Fine!" Saren shouted as he began to tighten the gloves around his hands.

"Don't bother with those." He stopped and looked up at her questioningly. "I'm not going to be facing off against Turian's with gloves on during missions, so there's no point of doing it now." She said revealing nothing on her face.

Without hesitation Saren quickly got rid of the suffocating gloves and bent his hands happily. He had to admit she was brave for that outlook, or most likely just plain stupid. He then grinned at her with a predators glint in his eyes. Her eyes widened slightly as she stared at the razor sharp talons.

Typically, Turians filed them down to prevent accidents to any other aliens. 'Why would Saren care about that', she sighed inwardly. It was stupid of her to assume as such. Shepard concluded that this was not one of her better ideas. "If I were to happen to kill you now, it wouldn't be my fault. It would be all yours." Saren hummed happily.

"Saren." Nihlus warned. Saren didn't even want to acknowledge his compromised friend. 'To think Nihlus would stoop so low as to sleep with a human,' he thought with disgust.

"_If_." Shepard said suddenly smirking at him. The beginning hum of a growl sounded in his throat. He definitely didn't like that magniloquent tone in her voice. "You said 'if', that means you're not completely confident that you can kill me. So, I'll take that as a compliment of my skills."

That was all it took. Saren bared his claws and ran at her. Quickly, he planted his foot and kicked at the side of her face. Then swiftly, she bent down and shoved his leg upward trying to make him lose footing. Before he could fall, he placed his hands down and somersaulted backward back into a crouched position on the haunches of his feet.

Since he was still in a crouched position, Shepard ran at him and attempted to knee him in the face. She barely connected with the plates on his forehead when he recovered, and with a hard swipe at her other leg, knocked her face first onto the mat. Saren then swiped his talons downward from her mid-thigh to her calf before she could roll out of the way.

He could smell the blood on his claws and was eager to taste it, but she wasn't down yet. He bounded after her, mouth open letting out a sharp cry. When she went onto her back he appeared over her body. He was going to grab her throat, but felt as her knees rammed into the soft sides of his waist sending a shooting pain up his body. He cringed reflexively and fell forward. Gaining control, Shepard then locked her legs around his waist and flipped him onto his back. She clasped one of her hands into her fist and went to slam down on his center, but was surprised by Sarens flexibility.

He had swung his leg in front of her. Catching her arms in his spurs and easily kicked her away from his body. They both then rolled and got back up. Without time to catch their breath, they went back to throwing punches and kicks.

Back and forth, and back and forth they traded blows. Small cuts and large bruises began to form on both combatants. Everyone watched amazed at the spectacle before them. Other Spectres who happened to be at the C-Sec building, watched on in awe as well.

It wasn't uncommon for a larger crowd to form when people found out Saren was sparring. Combined with the fact that THE human Specter was facing off against him, the crowd was enormous. Loud chants and cries were heard throughout the entire building. People were even recording it on their Omni-tools. The only two unaffected by the excitement were the two opponents who were solely only concentrating on one another.

Shepard and Saren were breathing hard now and getting sloppy with each punch they threw. Their legs were too heavy to kick with, and they both barely had enough strength to move around. Saren knew he needed to end it soon because even though he maybe stronger, Turians were not known for lasting endurance. Especially, compared to humans. But as he was scrutinizing her moves for an opening, he left one on himself.

Shepard had his left wrist held out of the way. Not thinking about that fact, he swung at her with his right hand but was easily dodged by her head jerking to the left slightly. Then reacting quickly, Shepard swung her free arm back and headed for the already bruised, soft side of his waist. Saren knew if she landed that hit it would be all over for him, and there was no way he was going to lose to her.

In the nick of time Saren put up a very slight biotic barrier on his waist. Her fist then hit the barrier preventing harm to him and gave enough leeway to bend inward around her fist as if she had hit him. Before giving her enough time to realize what he had done, he acquired enough adrenaline to slam his knee into her ribs. Next, she stumbled backward and fell to her knees hunched over.

Saren, overcome with exhaustion, stumbled into an open stance and panted heavily. "What that's it?" He laughed tiredly. He walked up to the hunched over flesh bag then. Desperately, He wanted to see her defeated face, too ingrain it into memory. As he got closer he could hear her laughing. Before he could react, her hands were covering his eyes. He backed up trying to separate, but found she was sticking to him like glue. Then with a hard shove he was finally freed of her parasitic 'jumping'.

When Saren saw her again, she was standing up as if she wasn't even tired, and chuckled at his surprised face. He snarled a vicious roar that he himself had never heard before, and jumped on her knocking her to the ground. With his hands surrounding her throat she struggled to breath, "what are you going to do now, you whore!"

"Saren!" The voice gasped. Saren looked at his claws and noticed blue blood on them. Suddenly, Shepard's form turned into Nihlus and he scooted backward. The next thing he knew his fringe was being yanked backward and his throat exposed. She stared down at him intently as he looked up at her surprised. The room fell into an eerie silence.

"I win." She said revealing blood soaked teeth. Saren stricken by shock looked from Nilhus, to her, and back again. The onlookers then erupted.

Now completely embarrassed, Saren then batted her hand away from his fringe and got up to a kneeling position. He glared death into her. Yet, she remained still breathing. "I did tell you what would happen if you cheated." She said staring at him confused. Shepard had no idea why Saren had seemed so surprised. Her warning had apparently fallen on deaf ears.

"What did you do!?" He demanded. She smirked and brought up her Omni-tool then with a few swipes and clicks his left eye turned off. Saren shot up and grabbed her shoulder, "stop whatever you're doing now!" His talons dug into her arm and she winced slightly. This he found curious. Any normal being would at the least have grunted in pain. After all, his talons were partially in her body. Yet, all she did was wince.

Shepard quickly turned his eye back on. Then Saren slowly pulled his hand out of her arm, gauging her reaction as he did so. The only show of discomfort she showed was a slow but calm intake of shuddeing air. Once his talons were fully out, he continued to glare daggers into her. "All I simply did was hack into your eyes." She said quietly to him. Shepard knew she was making him angrier, and normally she tended to avoid verbal conflicts. But something about him made her want to push his limits.

'Where did she even acquire the time to do that,' Saren thought in agitation. Then the sound of her laughter as she was hunched over, echoed into his head. 'That had been it', he realized. The span of time from when he slammed his knee into her and when he was at her hunched over body was when she hacked into his cybernetic eyes, 'It must have been only a minute of time!' Even though it sickened him, he had to admit he was impressed.

"Both of you are insane!" Nihlus said through a pained throat. He got up from the mat and grabbed a towel from a bench off to the side. As he held it to the minor scratches, he glared at both of them, "I can't believe you both; acting like undisciplined children!" He said as loudly as he could.

Shepard looked at the ground sadly and then turned to Saren, "I apologize. That last shot at you was very petty of me." She said. Saren grunted in response. "We can talk more when there are fewer ears. I will see you back at the apartment." She stated as she continued to ignore everyone else.

A new wave of anger and uneasiness flowed through him. He forgot that the message had said that she was going to be moving in with him. No! He did not want a human ruining his only place of rest. That was HIS safe haven! The only time he didn't need to be looking over his shoulder! Now he had to share this with her? It made his stomach turn. However, there was no point in losing his cool with her now, so all he did was nod.

Shepard turned and went up to Nihlus. As she reached her hand out to his wound, he turned his head with an angry huff. She pulled her fingers back as if she had just been caught touching something she wasn't supposed to. Then sighing she moved his hand away and pulled out a small Medi-gel packet. She then put one of the edges in between her teeth, and tore it open. Putting some on the tips of her fingers, she applied it in small circles around each wound. As the gel got to work she pulled out some Turian bandages and applied them to the scrapes. Almost instantly the adhesive side of the bandages melted onto Nihlus's skin and took on his skin color. Her time with him during training taught her to always have supplies on hand that weren't just used for humans.

After she was done, she took a step back and bent her body into his view. Nihlus grunted and moved his head to the other side. She followed and gave him a smirk. He looked down and she bent down. When he looked up and she started jumping into his view, he couldn't help but start to laugh, "Forgive me?" She asked when he finally looked at her.

Disregarding society's rules of a person's personal bubble, he bent in close to her and clicked his mandibles like a metronome. She hated when he did that. Reading people came easy to her, even aliens. But when he did that she couldn't examine what he was feeling. The constant moving of his facial plates hid any possibility for her to tell. Annoyed, she narrowed her eyes at him. She hated being taunted. "You know what I want. You give me that and I'll forgive you."

"That's it? Alright, but you lead the way. I have no Idea where the apartment is." She turned around to look at Saren, "unless you-" Saren then walked away and grabbed a towel from the towel rack outside of the locker rooms. Shepard nodded and began walking toward the door. Blood seeped into her shirt where Sarens claws had been, and the slices on her leg were visible to everyone. Some people in the crowd pointed and whispered amongst themselves, Saren puffed out his chest in pride as he stared at her wound. The fact the she couldn't bend her leg and was walking with a limp, made him even happier. So what if he lost, she was the one with the scars now.

Once she got to the door she slowly bent down and picked up a duffle bag. "I'm guessing you're going to take a shower first." Nihlus said to Saren who still was admiring his handy work.

"I am. Go ahead and follow your human whore, just don't do anything in my room." Saren stated and walked into the locker rooms.

Nihlus rolled his eyes and fast walked over to Shepard. "I'm almost tempted to try and seduce you into that idea." He said in a low voice to her.

"And I'm almost tempted to take you up on it." She replied honestly.

Nihlus smirked and placed his hand onto the lower part of her back, "oh really?" He chirped in her ear. She blew out a small puff of air and rolled her eyes at him. He laughed and brought his hands back to himself. "I should warn you, his apartment is very... Dull."

"Hmm something we have In common then." She replied with her typical blank face.


	3. Chapter 3

**__****Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own character and plot idea. The rest are all BIOWARE'S. **

**Rule #3**

**Flower Scented Hair Care products only**

Saren had taken his time in the shower. He dreaded going back to his apartment sending a hollow feeling to his gut. He didn't have many things, and the things he lost due to his job, he was okay with. But losing the one thing that he actually cared for didn't sit right with him. And it wasn't going to happen, he repeated over and over in his head as he made his way to the door.

As he got closer to his apartment he expected to smell the aftermath of mating pheromones lingering in the air from his traitorous friend and human whore. Instead, a pleasant smell of Turian stew wafted in the air. His stomach rumbled and low pleased chirps came from his throat. 'When did Nihlus learn to cook so well?' Saren thought as he smelled the air.

Slowly, he opened up the door and scanned the room for whatever damage the human had done. Surprisingly, the only things out of order were 3 duffle bags and 2 locked crates in his living room. Then not being able to stray away from the delicious smell, he covertly walked to the kitchen. Using the shadows as cover, he watched the two.

Nihlus was sitting down at the table in the dining room, as Shepard was in the kitchen scooping out the stew into a bowl. Her hair was wet which made the springs of her fringe even more defined. Saren curiously sniffed the air. Then languidly, his eyes narrowed at the flowery scent. The one thing about Humans he didn't mind was their planets flora. They couldn't really appreciate the smell from their lack of scent glands like Turians could. Another reason why humans were so inferior, he felt. That was going to be one of his rules, he concluded. She was only going to be allowed to use floral scented cleaning materials, nothing else.

Now ignoring the nice scent, Saren scanned the rest of her. Somewhat like he predicted she had been binding down her chest, but unlike what he thought, her chest was quite large. His hands (including his talons) were probably just the length of one of her breasts. He was also pretty sure his hands would sink into them if he ever touched one. Which wouldn't ever happen, he assured himself. Saren then scanned lower down stopping at her leg where he had cut her during their match. She had bandaged it up but some blood seeped through in some places. He smiled remembering the taste of her blood on his talons before he washed it off in the shower.

"Here you go." Shepard said handing a bowl to Nihlus. He reached over the island and grabbed it from her. Shepard leaned onto the islands counter top and watched him as he greedily fed from the bowl of dextro-food.

Nihlus sat back to take a drink and smiled satisfied at her. "Alright, all is forgiven. It amazes me how well you cook our food without being able to taste it."

"You forget Salarian's pride themselves on everything creative. Being able to cook well with all foods is a big deal to them." She explained and poured another bowl of food. Saren made a confused face at that comment. He stored his questions in the back of his mind to figure out at a later date. Right now he wanted to know what she was going to do with that other bowl of food.'Is she really that stupid to eat food toxic to her species,' Saren thought to himself.

Shepard then walked over to the table and laid the bowl at an open spot. "Ready to eat Saren?" Her now green eyes stared at him. Nihuls looked up from his food and chuckled at Saren's stiff posture. Saren hadn't expected her to identify him so quickly.

He made a sharp click from his throat and moved out of the shadows keeping eye contact with Shepard. She stared back not amused and unimpressed. As he got closer to her the tension got higher and higher. A single move from either of them would have set off an all out brawl. Nihlus was even clenching up and getting ready to intervene, if necessary.

Saren hated how defiant she was; how she would refuse to back down. Yet, the adrenaline that rippled through him now was something that he hadn't felt in a long time. His brain sharpened to a fine point, with just quick scans he figured out 14 ways of debilitating her without her reacting. His nose could smell the adrenaline and fatigue coursing through her body, mixed with that calming flora smell. He felt as his biotic powers bit against her weak ones, asserting his dominance. A chill then ran down his spine and he couldn't stop himself from smiling (the little bit he could, considering his face plates were now mostly immobile from the cyber-tech being fused to them).

Content with the fact that both of them knew who the stronger one was, he pulled out his chair and sat down. She wouldn't admit it, but just facing off against the brutal Spectre made fear shoot throughout her body. It took Shepard a moment to regain the ability to move again. Once she had, she walked back into the kitchen and started making food for herself.

"There's human food in my fridge." Saren muttered glaring at Nihlus as if it was his fault.

"I need food too, but if you would like I could buy another fridge. However, that would come with a higher electricity bill, and people making room to install it, which would equal to about 2 weeks worth of people being in here. Then that would mean we would have to stay here instead of going out on missions. Though I'm sure you could use a break." Shepard explained.

Saren scoffed and rolled his eyes, "please tell your human whore that Spectres don't take breaks." Saren knew he was being difficult and petty, yet he didn't care.

"She's not a whore, nor is she my lover." Nihlus said.

Saren opened his mouth to retaliate but was quieted when Shepard scooted a chair out for herself. She sat down with a sandwich and looked over at him, "I'm a virgin." Saren coughed wildly. He was not prepared for that admittance. Now he realized what the faint smell she had been exuding since they met was, purity. It had been many, many years since he had smelled that on another. Deep down he could feel his primal need to claim her. After all, he was in the courting years of his life now.

"That's why you said you can't be a whore." Saren replied quietly remembering what she had said earlier.

"Spectre's should always have the right information. And besides that, it's always better to be open with your partners."

"You are not my partner!"

"_You_ can elude yourself all you wish, Saren. Call me your trainee, your watcher, your annoying pet human, bitch, call me anything you like, but _we will_ be working together for sometime. So learn to adapt." She glared at him and then continued eating.

Nihlus laughed internally as he watched the stunned expression on Saren's face. No one stood up to Saren, ever. Besides his incredible service record and skills, he himself was...terrifying. He had a hair trigger, cold calculating eyes, smug evil personality, and always moved like he was on the hunt. Even Krogan's didn't like dealing with him. But this human didn't even flinch, and was even willing to keep working with the asshole no matter how much Nihlus tried to convince her otherwise. Now he realized that she was just as stubborn as Saren. 'Maybe this wont end as badly as I thought,' He thought to himself as he went back to eating his food.

Nihlus and Shepard ate in silence as Saren continued to glare. He refused to touch his food, to give Shepard satisfaction from him possibly enjoying the food.

When Shepard and Nihlus were done and had put their dishes away, they both grabbed Shepard's things from the living room and turned to Saren. "Which room will I be staying in?" She asked choosing her words carefully.

"That hallway. Second door on the right. My room is the first door. The bathroom you already found I presume." Saren explained annoyed.

Shepard nodded and they both left him to himself. Saren brought his attention back to his food. The way his stomach grumbled there was no way he could resist from eating it any further. He grabbed the spoon and slowly dipped it into the stew. Anxiously, he put the spoon in his mouth and swallowed. "Dammit." He muttered. It was good.


	4. Chapter 4

**_Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own character and plot idea. The rest are all BIOWARE'S._**

**A/n: When I was playing Mass Effect and getting hopelessly sucked into the story, I always felt so bad for Shepard and Saren. Both receiving the knowledge of the ****Protheans genocide and the fact that it was going to happen again; I always felt that they had a connection. When Saren killed himself partially because of it, I felt sooo bad for Shepard because now she was alone. I guess that's when this story began forming in my head. **

**Rule #4 **

**No Snoring. EVER.**

"On the left!" Saren grumbled over the Comm. to Shepard. They were caught in a gun fight with some mercenaries who had taken down several small supply ships. It was an easy mission, eliminate the _Mercs_. and secure cargo. It was nothing a single Spectre couldn't take care of. Yet, both Saren and Shepard agreed that they should do a few easy missions to get used to each other's fighting abilities before taking on harder ones. So far, it wasn't working very well.

"Don't worry about it. It's already been taken care of." Shepard replied as she fired at several Mercs. with her pistol. Suddenly, a minor shockwave from a _frag _caused Saren to stumble from his crouched position out into the opening. Looking up, he was face to face with an assault rifle pointed steadily at him, but before he could get peppered with bullets, the Mercenary's head flew backward with a small spray of blood.

Saren then quickly got back to cover behind a small empty cargo container. Once he was in a readied position with his own assault rifle, he snapped his head to Shepard who stared back at him. "I thought you knew that I tripwired some _frags_ before we left that cover." Shepard deadpanned to him, and then began reloading her pistol.

"How would I know that?!" He shouted exasperated.

Shepard cinched her shoulders to her slightly turned head. Her ears were in pain from his sudden screeching over the Comm. 'Man, Turians can hit some high notes,' Shepard thought to herself. She would have liked a warning, at least. Shepard then angrily turned her head back to him. Even though she knew that he couldn't see her face from her all Black Death mask, she continued to glare. His uncalculated instability was getting on her nerves. Maybe because of that she didn't tell him about the trap to cover them so, they couldn't get flanked. That would mean Saren was completely justified in his anger, but all she felt was a small case of justification.

The two remained in their glaring match until there was a still on the battlefield and the sound of ammo reloading. Then in sync the two stood up from cover and began firing.

Once they had finally picked off the last of the _Mercs_. They stayed silent as they examined the corpses for anything useful. When the two were each satisfied that all the _Mercs. _were dead, they regrouped. Both stood their ground and the only sound they could hear was the gentle whoosh of the planets air flowing around them. Then, not being able to contain his anger any further, Saren quickly opened his mouth from under his helmet, "undisciplined-"

"Don't you dare call me undisciplined!" Shepard retorted furiously.

"Oh? And how would you like me to refer to my so called 'partner' for nearly getting me killed!"

"So, last mission when you failed to warn me of the group of Blue Suns sneaking up on me as you went for cover, meant **YOU** were being a good partner?!"

"If you had just died I wouldn't be in this position!" Saren violently whispered back.

"No, you would be grounded awaiting some other Spectre to offer to watch you! Which no one had before, until I had!"

"Nihlus would have-"

"You know former trainees aren't allowed to do that."

He stepped up to her and shoved a finger into her vision. "Nihlus would have, if push came to shove, but no you had to be a cocky little career hungry Bitch!" He then placed his talons around her throat. She didn't even satisfy him with resistance. "I will not be used as a stepping stone!" he told her in skin crawling voice.

Shepard just stared at his furious expression. Once again silence surrounded the two. Shepard wanted to say something, but halted when she realized that there was no pressure on her throat. That baffled her. Saren hadn't held back on hurting Shepard before. Just that morning in the small dining area on his ship, she bumped into him and accidently caused him to drop his food. In response, he pushed her aside and deliberately swiped his talons across her forearm. When she was getting ready to retaliate she watched as he stared at her with no expression, and began to lick the blood off his talons. Combined with the dim lights causing the neon blue from his eyes to glow, and the fact they were in a confined space, made that obvious intimidation tactic stop her from retaliating, and just clean up the mess that she had caused.

Maybe that scare earlier proved to him that she could take him out just as easily as he could take out her. With that in thought, Shepard sighed loudly. No matter how justified it might have been it didn't sit right in her stomach. This fighting and hyper vigilance was not beneficial for the two. Shepard knew that since she wasn't going any where soon, something needed to give. Hopefully, that wouldn't be her throat. "We should secure that cargo." She said in her usual blank voice.

Saren grunted in response and drew back his hand. He had figured out that when she would resort to her usual blank voice after talking with infliction, that, that was her way of saying _'drop it'_. At that point there was no sense in continuing this argument here. As he walked to the first cargo ships door, he decided that he would corner her in her bunk room and ream into her there.

Shepard pulled out her Omni-tool and with a few strokes opened up the door. Saren stepped in and acknowledged Shepard's smart thinking of staying out of the cramped space with him. Inside, he carefully scanned each crate for any hint of missing items. He jotted down in his Omni-tool of any that were, and then left. Once outside, he noticed Shepard hadn't waited and gone on to the next cargo ship.

Saren was tempted to corner her there, but he felt that he'd rather get the inventorying done now. As he started walking towards the last ship he received a ping on his Omni-tool. He reflexively flicked out his wrist and the orange glow of his Omni-tool lit up his face through his helmet. A message from an unknown sender appeared. He ran a quick Trojan scan program; it produced safe results, so with an anxious hum he opened the message.

_**'Your partner problem is solved in 10..9..8..-'**_

Without hesitation Saren bolted to the crate. "Get out now!" He yelled over the Comm. Unexpectedly, Shepard suddenly appeared running down the steps as he got to them. Then with a hard push from his legs he grabbed her, sending their bodies flying into the air away from the ship. As they were in the air, an explosion rocketed them 50 feet through the air causing them to land on a feeble container. The crate 'cushioned' their fall by absorbing their momentum and broke.

After both of them regained their mental faculties, they each used an arm to lift themselves up to look at the now exploded crate. A smoldering fire replaced most of the crates walls and ceilings. Anything in the crate was either now laid out on the ground, or was still falling down. Both of them stared for a moment longer and then turned to each other. "Are you alright?" Saren asked since he couldn't judge if anything was wrong with her through her faceless helmet.

"Yeah. I saw the bomb as you ordered me out. Are you alright?" Saren knew he heard worry in her voice, but didn't want to believe it.

"Yes, that is until my adrenaline passes through." It was then that Saren noticed their indecent positioning. Her left leg was In between his legs, and slightly cradled in one of his spurs. Her head was no longer tucked into his chest but hovered there. The reason of course, he had put her head there was because he was taller than her. He hadn't done it out of protection, or to take the brunt of the impact. Saren didn't do those things...he didn't do those things...

"How did you know about the bomb?" She asked. He noticed there was no sign of implication in her voice.

"They sent me this." He attempted to sit up, but as he brought his leg into a crossing position he took her leg with him. So her leg wouldn't brake, she moved her body sideways into his lap. Saren's body petrified at the sudden presence of her body. His arm was sticking out not moving an inch. Taking initiative, Shepard then unfurled her leg from his spur and turned outward grabbing a hold of his arm. She sat boldly right up against his body. Holding his breath Saren damned the spirits for the pleasant chills that ran through his body from the contact of her body.

Shepard quickly went to work on his Omni-tool attempting to back track the messages origin. Binary and coding lines sailed through the small screen. Saren knew he was above average when it came to hacking, but Shepard was on a whole different level. Numbers and letters melded together in a blur of orange. He couldn't look away even when his eyes were having trouble keeping up. He was so caught up in watching he hadn't even realized his body had relaxed and curled around her.

Then all at once, the screen went back to the message.

_**'Your partner problem is solved in 10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1.. You're welcome. Until we 'meet' again,'**_

The full message read. Shepard sighed, 'How much deeper could I possibly dig my grave,' she thought tiredly to herself. "The message came from Omega. I got a partial signature of an Omni-tool, but I'd need several more messages to get a full _sig._ to track them down with. I'm guessing this is the first message you got?" Saren grunted a yes. "Hmm, sounds like a possible fan. Stalker perhaps? Hell, could be anyone from my childhood."

"Childhood?" Saren asked curious. 'How could a child acquire enemies,' he wondered.

"Used to be in a gang..._'right hand man'_, so to speak." Shepard replied. She slowly got up making sure that every body part was in working order. The only thing that was bothering her was the lack of warmth on her back. For a brief moment before she got back up, she was tempted to make some excuse to remain sitting there against him. She couldn't even think of the last time she was that close to anybody for a long period of time like that. Desperation, she chalked it up as.

Saren paused and growled at the racing of his traitorous heart. Mimicking her movement, he was careful as he stood up as well. Content that nothing was wrong, they both started heading to his ship. There was no point in checking the third crate since they didn't know if that one was compromised as well, or if this was all just a carefully laid out trap for them. Once onboard, Saren sat down in the pilots chair and clenched his mouth shut as Shepard sat in the co-pilots right beside him. He missed being alone. Shepard ignored him as she wrote in her personal Omni-tool on what had happened.

When she finished writing out a detailed entry she sat back. It was apparent the feeling of the cockpit was no longer filled with his anger towards her, but rather just annoyance. She never thought she would consider that calming. As she sat back somewhat relaxing, her mind replayed what had happened. Saren had saved her, willingly. 'I wonder if he realizes that he revealed what he honestly feels about me', she wondered as she turned her head to stare at him.

Saren's body was calm and unaffected by her staring. A few weeks ago he would have reacted. He would have lashed out, but now it was just a minor agitation to him. "I volunteered because you are the best the Spectres have to offer, and I wanted to learn from that." She stated.

Putting the ship on autopilot he turned to her. He wanted to be smug about it. He wanted to question her truthfulness. Yet, as he watched her now brown eyes stare back at him honestly, he couldn't bring himself to even taunt her. "Don't forget it." He settled on saying.

"I won't." She smirked, and took off her helmet. The exhaustion was finally settling on her body and she wanted to do anything but move.

"Do you snore?" Saren asked, his body feeling the same as hers.

"Not loudly." She yawned.

"Good." He replied.

As if perfectly in tune, they both passed out.


	5. Chapter 5

**_Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own character and plot idea. The rest are all BIOWARE'S._**

**Rule #5**

**No touching**

Nihlus sat down angrily on Sarens couch. Shepard sat on the couches armrest as Saren stood over her with his arms crossed in front of him. _'Or is it Saren and Shepard's couch'_, he thought as he watched the two argue. _'Argue might be the wrong world'_, he thought as he stared at Saren shouting in Shepard's face, and Shepard accepting it with her blank facade. But it wasn't as if she didn't participate in egging Saren on. Every time Saren paused to let her answer she'd say something to piss him off even further, knowing full well what she had done. After all she did do it to him when she was pissed off with him. Right now however, Nihlus was growing very tired of it.

He loved Sam very much, but if she kept this up he was going to have to punch her. "Listen here Shepard, I'm the leader of this team, and if you think for even one moment that you get a say in what missions I choose, you are so sadly mistaken." Shepard opened her mouth to retort, but Saren let out a sharp shrill to get her to shut up. Refusing to clutch her ears from the slight pain his sound caused her, she instead let out a small groan. "I am not finished! I have been the top Spectre for over 2 decades, I know how all this works. I know the politics, I know the bad guys, I know the places, and contacts. You on the other hand know absolutely nothing besides how to eat, drink, and follow orders." Saren shouted. His eyes glowing intensely blue.

When Shepard opened her mouth again Saren placed his hand on the couches backrest clutching the material. Hearing the fabric tear slightly, Shepard shifted on the arm rest to fully face him. She opened her mouth again, but was cut short when he moved his head to hit hers.

Quickly, Shepard drew her head back. Saren eyed her curiously, and tried to hit her again only to feel nothing but air. Once more he tried, and again nothing but air, except this time both of them stretched too far and hissed out in pain. Even though the explosion was 3 days ago and neither one of them sustained any major injuries, they were still sore.

Nihlus stood up to see if either one of them needed any help. As soon as he had, both of the injured pairs glared him back down. "Utterly ridiculous." He huffed out in annoyance. He was really getting fed up with the two, and he knew his mandibles were tightly wound into a stiff position against his jaw giving away what he was feeling.

"Why are you pulling away?" Saren asked curiously. Then slowly an explanation dawned on him. His mouth grew into a teeth barring sneer causing Shepard to take in a quiet breath. She could almost feel the pricks of the teeth on her skin. The salvia on them glistened under the fake light making them appear immensely sharp. _'So sharp,'_ she thought as a chill ran from her neck through her spine. "You, the proclaimed 'alien lover,'" Saren directed towards Nihlus, but still faced Shepard, "don't like Turians. Tell me does my presence make your stomach roll, make you sick?" He asked in a dangerous whisper.

Nihlus waited for her to grunt in aggravation, roll her eyes, or put Saren in his place. What he wasn't prepared for was her silence. So many things then began to run throughout his mind. Nihlus turned to her then, there was no way that could be true! She said she loved him, had that all been a lie? She was an amazing infiltrator and he could attest to her amazing ability to persuade people. Could she really have made him into a mark all this time?! Panic ran through his body as he stared wide eyed at her.

Shepard caught Nihlus's look and knew exactly what he was thinking. She knew it wasn't true, but if she were to talk she wouldn't be able to keep the mask on her face. She then looked at Nihlus properly this time. His mouth was slightly open and she could almost hear his mandibles quivering. The wave of guilt crashed against her heart and flowed into a whirlpool in her stomach. Nausea, pain, and sadness spun around and around until her whole body erupted with screaming. She knew the screams, albeit she only had felt them two times before, but that type of horror stayed with a person. That pain was why she only allowed few to love her, and her to love them. Regret was painful, alright. Shepard sighed and admitted defeat.

In an instant her face exploded in red, causing Saren to stare in wonder. He didn't even know she was capable of embarrassment, "isn't a Turian's placing their forehead on another's forehead an act that means that they consider them as a lover?" She asked quietly.

Saren shot upward causing his sore muscles to echo with past pain. On the other end of the couch Nihlus buckled in laughter, leaving Shepard to pout still red faced. This was far from funny to her. Obviously, she had misread this Turian mannerism, but she did know that what she had asked was true. _'It must have different meanings in different situations,'_ she concluded. Turians were so interesting, that was why she was happy to have one as her trainer. But right now she wanted to stab her Turian mentor.

"Silence Nihlus!" Shepard and Saren shouted at the same time. They both looked at one another. Then too embarrassed to hold eye contact, looked away. "Please inform me of my mistake." Shepard said.

"It's not quite a mistake, rather a misinterpretation. In a Turian military when a private contests a commander's command, the commander shows his dominance by head butting the offender. If the offender gives by stumbling and not returning the headbutt with one of their own, then the situation is dropped. If they do then the commander puts the private in their place by sparring." Saren explained with a sigh.

"And if the private wins?" Shepard asked.

"They don't." He stated.

Shepard stood up and looked at him challengingly. Saren hated that look. How those queer eyes glared through his armor. She wouldn't even flinch when he glared back. She would just challenge him head on, but nobody else ever would. Yet, Saren couldn't help but crave that look. His senses, mind, and reflexes heightened just like they used to when he first became a Spectre. When things were challenging.

Saren easily gave over to the feelings, and stood up close to her. Then with a hard push he slammed his head onto hers. Shepard stumbled somewhat but came back up to him. Then with a hit of her own she collided with his forehead plate. Saren never stumbled since there was no way a simple human could rival a Turian in brute strength, but his head did fall back slightly.

In response to her return hit, he began to clench his fist, but was halted when her fingers wrapped around his soft neck and pulled his head onto hers. Since he had been taken by surprise, he couldn't stop himself from purring at the connection. No female, nor male had ever done that show of Turian affection to him. Because of this he lost himself briefly, and hadn't realized his left hand grasped her upper arm as if he was drowning.

Shepard was confused why he was reacting the way he was. His cold blue eyes narrowed and softened in front of her. He wasn't looking at her (really), but was in his own separate world. Completely, confused she looked over a Nihlus. He was no help, because now the Turian was rolling on the ground laughing.

Finally coming up for air, Saren came back to his senses and grabbed her hand. "THAT is a Turian lover's show of affection." Saren noted the delicious blushing that spread on her face again. Now that he was so close to her face he could feel the heat irradiating from her. Part of his brain was still relishing in her mistake earlier, and wanted to nuzzle against her warm skin. He was curious if humans were as warm as they seemed when in that state. However, there was no way he was going to find out today.

"I didn't mean to do that! I just wanted to convey the fact that neither one of us is the dominant one here!" She cried out in a whisper. Her eyes were wide from the shock of what she had caused Saren to feel. Internally, she swooned a bit from his purring, it reminded her of a tabby cat that used to live in her apartment building when she lived on Earth. The fact that Saren could do that made her want do it again, but she knew better.

"Well you accomplished that!" Nihlus couldn't stop himself from putting in his two cents.

"Nihlus if you don't shut up, I'm going to rip off your genital plate and stab you thorough your slit!" Shepard shouted flustered.

"And I'll help!" Saren stated glaring at the young Turian.

"Why is it the only time you guys get along is when you yell at me?!" Nihlus shouted, clenching his abdomen to protect himself from them.

Shepard said nothing but pulled her knife out of its sheath. With his hands up in frustration, Nihlus stayed quiet and remained seated on the floor.

Shepard's tenacity and strength was growing on Saren. Looking back at the few missions they had been on together, he realized that those weren't the only skills he was starting to get used to. Her ability to think on her feet nearly rivaled that of veteran Spectres. She also dealt with people a lot better than he did; making getting information a lot quicker and easier than his threats got him. When they got into hand to hand combat situations her skills were more than applicable. Then there were her hacking skills. She was easily one of the best hackers he had ever seen. Anything with even the most rudimentary tech was as good as exposed in her hands. Ultimately, if he had had the choice of choosing his partner and he only knew the candidates skills, he would have picked her every time.

"I have been on my own despite every now and again being forced to train prospects, for a very long time. And I'm not just referring to my Spectre career. I'm a 'lone wolf', that's how I operate. You can't expect me to relinquish that mindset overnight, especially when I'm being forced to by the council." Saren explained calmly yet still with an air of authority.

"I realize this Saren, but I need some feedback here. I'm not some trainee that follows your every command and will. I'm also not weak, where you have to watch my back as well as yours. I'm sick of being put into situations where I want to watch your back, but to wary to because I don't know how you're going to react." Shepard replied with the same voice as his.

"This is aggravating." And for once Saren wasn't referring to Shepard, but rather the situation he was in.

"I know. That's why I've been giving you room to adjust. But I'd like it if you would actually try to, instead of complain about it."

Saren stood there looking at her. A human and a Turian, partners; It wasn't the craziest of partnerships since Turians weren't that far advanced socially, than humans. Before the council they fought amongst one another just like the humans had. So it wasn't as if they were so much better. Desolas would hate him if he had heard this line of Saren's thoughts. Albeit it wouldn't have been the first time Saren would have expressed this to his brother. He could already picture Desolas hitting him and then going on and on with a lecture on his tribes history, why they were so great. That was exactly why Saren never looked back when he began to abandon his 'people' to follow the Council.

If the Council _really_ wanted him to work with a human, then so be it. Saren broke eye contact with Shepard and began sending over details of different missions the Spectres were being asked to look into. "This is my olive branch, don't break it." He said intensely.

Shepard nodded and went out of the room. After a few moments she came back, but with silver metaled glasses on. Saren regarded her curiously then, "why are you wearing something so archaic?"

"Because I can't see without them." She replied taking a seat on the couch and opening up her Omni-tool. Unlike most Omni-tools, her personal one glowed blue. Shepard had never been quite partial to bright colors. They made her quite sick if she was staring at them for long periods of time. Because of this, any Omni-tool she owned had darker colored interface lights. A simple thing to change if people cared to download a new setting program, she would explain to people who saw it.

"Then you should get your eyes recalibrated." Saren suggested surprised.

"Humans can't recalibrate their eyes." She stared up at him, joining in on being confused.

"Humans can't... Your eyes are real?"

"Yes, you couldn't tell?"

"Humans have another color of eyes called Hazel, Saren." Nihlus explained picking up on Sarens confusion. He had gone through the same confusion when he was chatting up a human female in a bar once with the same colored eyes. At first he thought that he had been drinking too much, but once he asked she explained it to him. Now it made sense why sometimes when Saren would stare at Shepard's eyes he looked confused, "it a brown and green color that when in certain lights shifts from one to the other."

Curious to test out this new information, Saren placed his hand under Shepard's chin and bent it up towards the light. Sure enough now that he was really looking, he saw the odd bi-color mixing. Around her pupils were rings of brown that erratically exploded into the green pools of her irises. He then moved her face back and forth from up to the ceiling lights and back down to the floor. Just like Nihlus said her eyes changed color.

After fully satisfying his curiosity he took a seat next to her. She smirked and went back to looking at her Omni-tool. "What do you use to see when you don't wear your glasses?" Saren asked.

"Contacts, but I prefer my glasses. It's not very pleasant feeling lenses on your eyeballs."

"Get cybertronics, and you won't have to deal with either."

"I prefer my body the way it is. I'm still not quite happy to have the minor tech implants it has now."

"I have to inquire why."

She looked over at him as if he was stupid, "you do remember how I hacked into your eyes, don't you? What makes you think other implants are un-hackable?"

"I see." He said rolling his eyes at her paranoia, _'most people can't hack a wall safe without some sort of difficulty,'_ he thought to himself. As he sat and waited for her to read through the case files, he looked around his living space.

He was surprised that she didn't make more of a footprint in his home. Everything was as it usually was. There was a couch and two sofa chairs, large plasma screen TV, some lamps, bookshelves for data pads, and standard paintings of the Citadel that came with his apartment when he bought it. The only things that were different were her shoes at the door along with a mirror.

Simple changes that he didn't mind, but he gave her a hard time for anyways. One of his big complaints was the fact his bathroom now contained human feminine products. This actually annoyed him more so, but to her credit she did keep them on her designated side. Yet, anytime he would knock them over he would loudly curse just so she knew she was still bothering him, even though she wasn't physically there.

Nihlus would laugh at Saren when he complained about it saying that that wasn't really a human annoyance anymore, but more so a male one. Saren cussed him out for that suggestion, but he could see the truth in it. Admittedly, this was the first time he had actually been around a woman longer than a nights roll in the sheets. Even then, he never did that here, only at their place. So basically his situation meant that he got all the frustrations and none of the benefits.

A loud cough brought Sarens attention back to the other two. He looked over at Nihlus, who with a minor head tilt motioned toward Shepard as Nihlus stared at him. Then Nihlus spun one of his hands in a circle making him realize that Nihlus wanted him to keep asking questions to Shepard. It was more of Nihlus's ridiculous effort to get him to communicate.

Saren snapped his head to face Shepard, who brought her eyes to look at him but still faced her Omni-tool. "What is this?" He asked as he grabbed one of her curls in between his talons.

"My hair."

_'Ah, right. That's what humans called their fringe,'_ he had forgotten that, since he had no reason before to remember it for. "Yes, but why is it like this? I have not seen human's hair like this before."

"Genetics, my Mother was African American and my father is Caucasian." Saren stared at her to continue, since he had no idea what that meant. Shepard sighed still feeling his stare_, 'why can't he just voice his confusion like normal people.'_ "My mother's skin was black and my father's skin is white, and both of my parents have curly hair. However, black humans tend to have more tightly curled hair than white humans. So that's what I ended up with. Shepard noticed that he was still twirling one of her curls around his talon absentmindedly as she spoke, "it's kind of like a spring. If you pull it down and let it go, it bounces." She smirked hoping to egg him on.

He knew what she was doing, but he couldn't stop his fingers from pulling the curl he had been messing with, down. Then disinterested, he let it go. Just as she said, the curl bounced a few times, and then stilled. Saren scoffed to himself, what was that supposed to do? Illicit some sort of childhood whimsy within him? He was a grown Turian and had much more of a refined taste when it came to amusement. Whatever game she wanted him to play was over before it began. So with a look of triumph, Saren looked away and placed his head on his free arms hand

_'I wonder when he's going to stop springing that curl,'_ Shepard thought stifling a laugh. After the first time he sprung her hair, he seemed to get addicted. She looked over at him after the first few times and noticed that he was off in his own mind, and she believed that he didn't even know that he was doing it. For the time being it seemed to cause him to relax, and not annoy her with his smugness so, she was content to let him enjoy himself.

Still on the ground Nihlus watched Saren with shock, and then amusement. He had never seen nor would believe Saren to ever act like this. All the memories of his ruthless mentor somewhat altered at the unnoticed action Saren was now doing. He couldn't help but chuckle because of it. At least that meant he wasn't the only one Sam had affected. Smiling, Nihlus laid his chin on Sam's knee. "What are you doing to him?" He asked her quietly.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She couldn't stop the laugh from slipping out. They both then covered their mouths as they laughed. Neither one of them quite knew what was going on, but they were okay with it.

After sometime, Nihlus yawned and told the two he was going back to his apartment. He ignored Saren when he mumbled under his breath, 'take her with you', as he walked out.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own character and plot idea. The rest are all BIOWARE'S.**_

**Rule # 6**

**No Personal Questions**

Shepard and Saren remained seated on the couch in silence. Saren kept playing with her curls subconsciously, as she kept reading. From the way they sat, if anybody were to walk through the door and see them, they would easily assume that the two were an item. In truth, that would be something neither of them had ever done before, nor something they would want to become with one another. Yet there they sat, calmly beside one another.

Finally, Shepard finished reading the case files and pulled one out and showed it to him. "I think we should do this one."

Saren looked over and noticed he was still holding one of her curls in his talons. He let go slowly trying to figure out when he had grabbed her hair again, "it's alright. I don't mind." Shepard told him nonchalantly. A large sigh left his body before he had time to think. 'Why did I just do that', he wondered urgently but showed nothing on the surface.

Always the cool, calm, and collected Turian, he grabbed her wrist that held the Omni-tool. He smiled when he felt her hand tremble slightly, but quickly focused on the task at hand. With a quick glance over the case file he turned an inquisitive gaze onto her. "Why?" He asked studying her. The mission was a simple. One of the simplest compared to the others.

All they had to do was break into a heavily guarded outpost of the Blue Suns. Once inside, they were supposed to find any information on a recent drug that was spreading quickly amongst Citadel space. And if they found any recipe, or mention of a recipe in the outpost they were to get it at all costs.

Shepard thought why she picked it was obvious, "I know it's a simple mission, but this could really help our 'team'." She definitely wasn't going to use partner since he always overreacted when she did. "It'll put us in a position where we have to trust one another to watch the others back, and since the mission will be easier if we sneak in, it'll also give us a chance to realize one another's skills."

'Insight, instinct... Good.' Saren thought to himself. He nodded at Shepard saying nothing else. Shepard stared at him, scrutinizing each ridge and soft skin on his face. He seemed to confirm her decision well enough. There was some boredom, she noticed, but he seemed to confirm her decision. "What is your training?" Saren asked suddenly. When she explained her decision he was reminded of Nihlus who had told him of her training, but not actually telling him what she was trained in.

"Boxing, and regular street fighting growing up. At 15 I was trained by a Salarian STG, and an Asari Huntress. Then at 19 I was accepted into the alliance military and received their standard training. Then finally there's my obvious Spectre training." Shepard explained nonchalantly.

Saren was now facing her completely on the couch. His eyes widened a bit, and his mouth hung ever so slightly agape. Saren ran through the possible scenarios where she would have received specialized training like that. An Asari huntress being convinced was simple enough. Especially, if the Asari had been in her Matron stage and Shepard made a deal to carry a child. Yet, it was too unlikely of a scenario since Shepard exuded no tell-tale signs of motherhood. As well as the fact she was a virgin. A fact he tried to push out of his head since anytime he thought about it, it made the urgency in his loins do backflips. Otherwise with that ruled out, he wondered how she worked her way into receiving that training.

However, even more surprising and unreal Saren felt, was that a Salarian STG (known for their upmost secrecy when it came to them) decided to train her. Salarian's didn't train other aliens in their military's fighting styles. They were too smart and clever to reveal something like that. So how had a simple human convinced a most likely brilliant Salarian into teaching her something that secretive? It made Saren 10 times more suspicious of Shepard now.

"It was a deal." Shepard said. She then logged out of her Omni-tool and laid it aside. Then she turned like he had, and faced him fully. "That's what you were thinking, wasn't it? You see, when you're confused and getting ready to interrogate your eyes go wide, and you actually give people your full attention."

Saren for the billionth time that night just stared at Shepard. He knew if she were to say that to any of the Council members or any other Spectre she would either get punched in the face, or disciplined severely. In the beginning, even he would have attacked her from the 'seeming' shot at his pride. Even now if she went too far he'd end the argument by a tight grasp around her trachea. Yet, he knew for the most part she meant no harm by her ill-timed observations. He even found it somewhat refreshing after so many years of being in such a secretive division of the Citadel forces. "Why is it you always sound like human version of a Salarian?" He asked rather than react to her earlier comment.

Shepard wasn't prepared for that question. Of all the questions he could have asked her that one had to be it. Her past wasn't something she liked to talk about to anyone. Every single time someone would inquire about how she ended up the way she did, she would talk circles around them and avoid the topic, but there was no way Saren would for fall for that trick. So right now she wasn't quite sure what to do. After all, she was the one who wanted them to at the least be comfortable with one another.

She sat there completely still, but retained her blank face. "What? Was that too personal?" Saren asked baring his teeth giving his version of a smirk.

Biting back the desire to upset him, she took in a deep breath, "15 until age 19 I was a research subject on a Salarian space station. The deal-"

"Research subject for what?" Saren interrupted purposefully, causing Shepard's eye to twinge in annoyance.

"They were using human genetics and...other things for medical experiments. A lot of cures and medicines came about because of it." Shepard explained. Saren noticed a light blush appear on her cheeks, but as soon as it started to appear, it began to fade away. "Anyways, the deal that my recruitment officer worked out was that for four years I would be a Salarian research project, and then I would be allowed to enlist for the alliance military." Shepard then stared intently at Saren. She didn't blink, didn't look away, just stared as if waiting for something from him.

"How old were you when this agreement was initiated?" He asked.

"Wrong question." A guile smirk graced Shepard's lips then, "What you should be asking is, **who** was the recruitment officer."

"And why would that matter to me."

"Anderson. You remember him, the first human you screwed out of a Spectre position."

Saren sat there still. It wasn't that he wasn't expecting that idiotic Anderson to rear his head back into his life, but he wasn't expecting _her_ to be the idiot's messenger. Not once over these past few weeks that Saren's been with her has he suspected she was seeking some sort of revenge. Even now as he was looking back on their brief time together for something that could tip him off, he couldn't find a single thing. Because of this, he came to the conclusion that the only reason she said something in the first place was for a reaction out Of him. He wasn't going to stoop to her game. He wasn't going to please her curiosity by flying off the handle. "I can't say I'm that surprised that you're exacting revenge from his grudge against me. Although how that fool lured you into some sort of plan, and how exactly you plan on executing it, seems improbable now that you've told me." Saren stated smugly. He even eased back into the couch releasing as much tension in his body as he could.

"There's no plan." Shepard replied as she cocked a bored eyebrow towards him, "Albeit between the two of you he seems to be the only one to actually let the grudge go. He still hates you but he's moved on. The only thing he did when he found out I was going to be working with you, was warn me."

"Then why bring it up at all!" Saren snarled at her. Angrily, he sat upright, but kept his talons on the sofa.

"Eventually you would find out. Then you would get paranoid. Then you would take it out on me." She stated. She bent forward slowly towards Saren, like a tiger just about to pounce. In response, Saren tensed his muscles ready to defend himself. "I don't like being a tool, to be used when the time is right by people. You may still believe that I'm watching you for the Council, but I make my reports like I always have; unbiased. You may believe I'm planning something with Anderson, but I'm not. I'm just here to work with, and observe you until this babysitting job is up, nothing else." She told him in a low controlled voice.

Saren didn't know how to react to that. She was just asking for it! He knew that he should just slash her throat open; he could claim that she tried to attack him. The Council would give him the benefit of the doubt. All he had to do was one quick swipe. Yet, Saren wondered why his heart was racing so fast. He didn't even have the ability to look away from her.

Saren suddenly felt the desire to push her down and take her there on that couch. A slight tingle sprang from his loins at the image of her crying out in a submissive moan. The same feeling happened when the image of her doing the same things to him appeared in his mind as well. Saren was always the dominant one with his partners so, he was confused by the sudden want to be dominated. Then still in confusion, he eased backward slightly.

Shepard, enjoying the confusion on his face, laid her back against the armrest. Getting most things out in the open allowed her to breathe easier. She didn't actually expect Saren to ever trust her, but hopefully he wouldn't be as uptight and defensive around her. As Shepard massaged her aching shoulder, she realized just how much she really needed him to stop being so defensive. It was causing her own body strain.

Every time she passed him she wasn't sure what he was going to do. She had to be cautious with every step just so she wouldn't accidentally touch him. Anytime she had he either ignored it or used those damned sharp talons to cut her with. As Shepard remembered the past time Saren had scratched her, she ghosted over the recently healed marks over her fore arm. Even though she was trained to keep her cool it was faltering. "Are you going to hit me again? Because this time I will be hitting back."

That got Sarens attention. With a swift motion he wrapped his hand around Shepard's neck. Then keeping true to her words she retaliated by grabbing the side of Saren's throat. Her thumb nail pressed into what she assumed was his Adam's apple and her other four fingers stabbed into the center column of his neck. Locked in an intensive standoff, the two waited for the other to give.

"Fuck you." Saren seethed as he loosened his grip.

"Only in your dreams." She stated and without thinking dragged her fingers along the soft part of his skin. Saren let his eyes roll up to the ceiling, stuffing down the want to purr in delight at the brief contact.

'If she only knew,' Saren thought as he let out a dark chuckle. Sex was the one thing that kept running through the back of his mind since she had accidentally touched him 'in that way' earlier. The urges he was adamant about never succumbing to were now seeming to be even more enticing. But he wasn't the only one feeling that way.

Even though she wore a straight unaffected face the severe tightening in her thighs told the truth of what she was truly feeling. With both hands she gripped the front of her shirt quite literally holding back the desire of attacking him right then and there on the couch. In truth, Shepard wasn't even able to look at his face for longer than five seconds without desire pulsing throughout her core.

As time went on, the tension between the two just kept escalating even though neither of them had said anything or looked at one another. It was a thick fueling type of tension that not only was sexual but also caused the two aggravations. After all, they couldn't act on their urges, they couldn't fight, and they couldn't do anything to relive the pressure, besides wait. Unfortunately, one of the things the two had in common was that waiting was never a strong point.

Saren then coughed, which sent a delightful tingle up Shepard's spine, "Do you have any questions of me?" He asked since that was the only thing he could think of asking.

Shepard nodded her head at that. One question had been plaguing her mind. She knew he wouldn't ever answer it, but she figured now was a better time than any to get it out of her system. With a deep breath she looked over at him and accepted the desire that came when she stared into his blue glowing eyes, "I heard you had a brother-" she was stopped when Saren stood up quickly.

"We leave at 500 hours. Goodnight." He stated calmly. He wasn't going to enter that territory, ever.

When Saren got to his room and closed his door gently Shepard stood up. "Goodnight!" She shouted allowing a red blush to rise to her cheeks. That had been the first time Saren had told Shepard goodnight. It definitely was the last thing she suspected him to say to her after she asked that question. And the fact he was as calm as he was when he denied answering her question made her somewhat nervous, but relieved as well. 'Maybe there's a possibility of us actually acting like partners', she thought optimistically. Hoping for that possibility, Shepard closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. Then walked to her room beside Saren's and closed her door gently as well.

When Saren heard her enter her room he relaxed, grateful for the fact that she had enough sense just to drop the subject then hound him down for an answer. Most people would, and had. But neither him nor Shepard were like most people. He couldn't help but feel that maybe they were more alike than he previously thought.

With a shudder, he got ready for bed.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own character and plot idea. The rest are all BIOWARE'S.**_

**Rule #7**

**Pre-mission research is a must**

The two were quiet the next morning as they made their way to Saren's ship. Neither one of them was willing to look in the eyes of the other because of the great sleep they both had the night before. Great sleep contributed to naughty dreams that had them both gasping when they awoke. It only got worse when they heard the other, as they got ready for their mission. Now, as they walked side by side in the somewhat quiet C-sec building, their emotions started to die down.

Nevertheless, Shepard was happy that her helmet covered her entire face from everyone. There was a permanent blush on her face that didn't seem to want to leave. She was supposed to be one of the elite! Someone who was supposed to take on the most dangerous missions from the Citadal Council, and was expected to do it with ease. Yet, here she was blushing like a school girl from no real provocation. 'My fellow humans would be so proud', she thought to herself as they approached the elevator to the docking bay.

The two Turians that guarded the elevator regarded the peculiar pair of Spectres with suspicion. It was uncommon to see two Spectres leaving at the same time, and since they had been walking side by side as they entered the building it was obvious they were partnering up for a mission. This caused the two officers to look more closely. When they noticed it was Saren they already knew who the woman beside him was. They both then looked at one another and started to laugh.

Saren rolled his eyes at the two as he entered into the elevator. Before he turned around and hit the docking bay button he noticed Shepard staring at the two Turians with that curious little tilt of her head she always did before she started asking questions. "I don't understand why you two are laughing at him. Unless, it's because you think that just because I'm here to...observe him that he's now fallen so low where he's beneath you?" The two Turians clenched up and glared at her. She let out a small chuckle and walked into the elevator beside Saren, "I'm sorry to inform you, but he's still a Spectre, and you two are still on elevator guard duty."

Saren hit the button before either of the Turians could get at her. He then turned to her wide eyed, "making enemies with fellow law enforcement no matter how far down the food chain, is never a good idea." He scolded then stood next to her staring out the transparent elevator walls. "But I did enjoy the look on their faces when you put them in their place." Saren admitted. He wasn't sure why he told her that, or why he was so happy to, but he wasn't going to waste energy on figuring it out. At least not right now.

"You should know by now that I hate arrogance," Shepard replied with a smirk. Saren rolled his eyes at the obvious shot at him earning a small chuckle from Shepard. "It's too early in the morning for that." Saren agreed with a grunt.

When the doors opened up, they walked over to Sarens ship. The ship was a perfect Spectre vessel. It was smaller, narrow for speed, and had an excellent engine. Dark weather resistant plates coated the outside of the ship, and with the flip of a switch turned into mirrored ones. In combination with a state of the art stealth system and state of the art tech, his ship was untraceable. Unless, you were Shepard.

The first time he showed Shepard his ship; she had hacked into, and assumed complete control of it in less than 5 minutes. He was so angry by the rude act he wanted to push her off the catwalk. Looking back, he realized that was just her being her.

She didn't seem very well versed in socializing as herself, but when it came to persuading people on missions she was spot on. It took a while for Saren to realize that when Shepard had to persuade people for information she slipped into a different character, as if she was an actor. It made more sense to Saren now that he knew she had been taught by a Salarian. Salarians were known for their passion of artistic endeavors, so it made sense why she combined that with her infiltration skills. More skill sets he could utilize in the future.

After they both were settled in the cockpit, Saren made his way to Asteria. A planet that was habitable, but dangerous since there was little animal life, horrible fertile soil, and terrible atmosphere. Because of this, it was urged for travelers to bring extra oxygen tanks when exploring since the air was so thin. All in all, the Blue Suns picked out a pretty smart place for a drug den.

As Saren flew he could see Shepard's fingers moving rapidly on her Omni-tool. Her face was absorbed in the rapid succession of data she surfed through. Now that her helmet was off he could see how transfixed she was with what she was doing. Saren felt lucky that she enjoyed hacking. When he worked with Nihlus, they had fought about who had to do research into their targets. He didn't even have to suggest it to Shepard.

"The drugs called the Blue Drop." Shepard said after a while, "It affects the users by putting them in a lucid state like LSD, but also increases adrenaline as well as sexual desires. Reported cases include users committing rape, murders, assaults, suicides, and attempts of suicide because of certain illusions they witnessed relating to the different levels of the drug in their systems." Shepard scrolled through the many reported cases, "The drugs in liquid form and only requires a small amount for it to go into effect."

"Makes sense why the council wants this taken care of quickly. How far back are the cases?" Saren asked.

"Only 3 months. It says in the intel, that they're pretty sure the drugs base of operations on Asteria is the only one there is."

"Yet you don't believe it."

"No. There are a couple of Quarions in these case files, and from what it looks like from their blood work and various bodily samples they've been hooked on this stuff for about a year. Albeit, in smaller quantities than the last few months." Shepard brought her confused but set in stone gaze onto him, "In over half of those cases they were on their pilgrimage."

"Since I'm sure the Quarions aren't wasting time on creating a new drug. They're probably being used as paid smugglers, and unfortunately due to their naivety, end up becoming users as well. So, what you're thinking-" he looked over at her with his full attention

"Someone else outside of Citadel space is creating the drug." She stated with a smirk.

"But why hide behind the Blue Suns? The Quarions are easy patsies in this case. Why not just hide behind them?" They both stayed silent. That question definitely needed to be looked at further, but right now wasn't the time for it.

"Should we inform law enforcement to search suspicious new coming Quarian ships?"

"No, you'll need better evidence then just the case files for that."

"When have Spectre's ever needed evidence in a situation like this before?"

"Normally we wouldn't, but you're working with me. And because of the situation I'm in now, everything we do will be under heavy scrutiny."

Shepard nodded, realizing that aggravating obstacle now. She turned her attention to looking out at the view. She never got tired of riding in space ships. She never thought while being a street urchin, that'd she'd actually end up in space being so close to the stars. While her mother would be fighting with her boyfriend, or entertaining clients, Shepard would go to the roof and gaze at the twinkling dots of light. She would day dream about flying a ship around, visiting different planets, and getting to know the other alien children there. Day dreams that she never for one second, actually believed would come true.

Out of the corner of Saren's eye, he could see Shepard getting lost in the stars. It reminded him of when he was young and he used to sneak out and star gaze. He knew nobody would ever expect him to take pleasure in something so simple because of his intense personality, but he wasn't quite as irascible as he always seemed to be. Often times he was quite low-key, he just looked pissed off. For that reason, that's all it seemed take for others to write him off as some hard ass. Admittedly, that had never mattered to him before, since everyone from the time he was born until now, treated him that way. Yet, since he had met Shepard that fact he had adapted to, now seemed skewed.

Right off the bat, Shepard refused to take Saren at face value. She never seemed to believe in the rumors and gossip that was said about him. Instead she allowed Saren to show her who he was. Somehow, she seemed to peer deeper inside of him than anyone else. It made him feel violated, in truth. Especially after last night from her admissions, and her question about Desolas. "Shepard." Saren demanded her attention quietly.

"Saren." Shepard mimicked with a smirk.

"After you asked about my brother last night, why did you let me refuse to answer?" Everybody else always seemed to demand an answer from him, no matter how many times he refused to.

"Many reasons. I never actually expected you to answer, but I wanted to ask anyways..." Shepard answered. She then glared at the controls in front of her and nibbled on the inside of her cheek. She didn't want to give him the other reason, and hoped that he wouldn't notice. However, Saren easily picked up on her sudden change in moods.

"And?" He asked curiously.

After sometime of her body staying completely still, he looked over at her. She sat somewhat slouched, but at the front of the co-pilots chair. Her hands clenched her knees and her face was turned straight ahead. He noticed the wrinkles at the corner of her left eye as she glared at the windshield. Questioningly, he brought his stare forward as well. When he had, he noticed her glaring straight at him in the reflection of them the windshield casted. "And... I'm not sure how I would have reacted if you inquired about my brother. I'd like to say it wouldn't bother me, but it would. And I'd probably end up doing the same thing."

They kept staring at one another like that for a long while, Shepard with a glare, and Saren eyeing her questioningly. As well as, the two furiously multitasking between attempting to read one another and keeping their own feelings In check. Neither one was quite prepared for how that simple answer to that simple question caused them so much turmoil. They weren't upset about the fact that they had slightly trusted one another long enough to open up. No, what made them so flustered was the fact that they didn't know what the other one was feeling about this.

The two had little to no experience in this area of socialness. Saren was regarded as a prude, angry, ruthless solider. Shepard; strange, analytical, and extremely blatant. However, the two together seemed to completely understand the others odd quirks. An understanding neither one of them found from anyone else throughout their life so far. Ultimately, the staring was the only thing they could think to do to express this fact.

Then suddenly, with a sigh Shepard sat back in her chair allowing Saren to shift into a more comfortable position and continue concentrating on controlling his ship. Every now and again the two would glance at each other and hold eye contact, but elected to say nothing else until they arrived at Asteria.


	8. Chapter 8

**_Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own character and plot idea. The rest are all BIOWARE'S._**

**Rule #8**

**Don't be predictable**

As soon as they arrived at the almost Barren planet, Saren put the ship in stealth mode and headed towards the compound the Intel talked about. Once they found it, they landed the ship 100 meters away and traveled on foot to some rock outcropping surrounding it. "So how do you want us to handle the people inside?" Shepard asked once they were on a secure comm. channel.

"Just kil-" Saren began, but stopped when he noticed Shepard staring at him as if she was trying to tell him something with her eyes. He eyed her carefully and then it clicked, "If you can knock them unconscious do so, but if they give you no choice take them out." He was now grateful for the fact that she replaced her death masks' face plate with a clear one.

Saren then turned to scour the targets ahead of him, questions swirling in his head, and not the usual ones. Ones like; 'How many enemies are there?', or 'What type of weapons do they have?' Just a question of 'Why had she done that?' It wasn't as if they were friends that looked out for one another. They also couldn't be considered partners since they hadn't been fighting together that long. Yet, he did feel that they were at least cooperative with one another. He hated when Nihlus was right. How could he possibly be tolerating her presence?

Next, Saren sighed quietly. Shepard looked over at him blank faced for a few seconds then turned back to the drug compound. "I'm going to scout over by the docking bay." Before Saren could inquire what she was specifically was looking for she moved beside him and stuck her Omni-tool in front of him. The screen was black with a few pulsating red blips. "It's a program I designed. Those blinking lights are machines that are hooked up to the Extranet. Now, when I get close enough to these lights a limited perimeter surrounding the machines will reveal a good size area of the compounds layout on my Omni-tool creating a pretty good sized map. Since there are quite a few close together, I'll have a good size map."

"You designed this? Why?" Saren asked curiously.

"For fun, and I mean it helps." She said somewhat quietly.

Saren peered more closely at her from the way she replied. Very, very lightly there was a light dusting of pink across the top of her cheeks. A sudden guile smirk spread across his face and he leaned closer to her. "Are you embarrassed?" He asked in a low hum to her.

"Uh-" Shepard began. Her vocal chords clenched up and not a noise came from her throat. She then hit a button on her suit and turned on her stealth field generator.

At that, Saren's smirk grew wider and he let out a deep rumbling chuckle. For once it was an actual laugh which made him feel good. He wondered when the last time he did that was.

Saren then watched Shepard's nearly invisible form leave their lookout spot. Then he watched as she weaved her body around standalone guards and stationary ships. Eventually, she disappeared by blending into the dusty dark red ground, and he turned his attention back to the front doors of the compound. Since she decided to get a layout of the compound, he decided to observe the guards and their shift changes.

After a few hours Shepard came back and they both took shifts in watching. The guards changed every four hours, but around what the two assumed was dinner time, the guards were there for 6. It was decided then that, that's when they were going to infiltrate.

They then made their way back to Saren's ship to wait out until tomorrow. Even though they were just observing the compound, both of them were quite tired. Being on guard for hours on end has a way of making a body amazingly tired.

Once on the ship they started taking off their armor. Being as advanced as it was, it took longer to get off. The only sounds for the next few minutes were the unclasping and whirling sounds of armor pieces disengaging to be put away. When they finished they made their way into the kitchen.

Shepard stuck out her fist as they stared at the fridge, "Rock, Paper, Scissors; to see who cooks?" She suggested still wearing an expressionless face. She really didn't want to deal with cooking today. Even though, between the two of them she was the better cook.

Saren then stuck out his own fist, sighing as he did so. "1, 2, 3 shoot." Shepard said. Shepard stuck out rock, but Saren stuck out 1 talon. Confused, she looked up at him with a questioning stare.

"Dynamite." He stated and sat down at the kitchen table. He then grabbed a data pad from a shelf beside him and leaned on his elbow seemingly bored.

Shepard glared at Saren, 'smug bastard' she thought to herself. Feeling annoyed, she yanked out cooking supplies and started on making food for the both of them. She hated the fact that he would humor her, but do whatever he wanted to do anyways. She never understood why he would do that. 'What was the point if he's going to do whatever he wants, too begin with?!' She thought angrily to herself.

Without any concern she started filling a pot with hot water, and burning herself when she dropped it on the stoves burner. Then she swung open the fridges door causing it to go too far, and shake the fridge slightly. Admittedly, she wasn't just angry about cooking. She was still feeling embarrassed from earlier. She hadn't been prepared when he wanted to know more about the program she designed. Usually, when she talked about hobbies of hers people would just get bored and quit listening. Then when he leaned in so close to her, her dream from the night before flashed through her mind making her face as red as the ground. Unlike then, she was now just frustrated with herself and him.

After Saren heard the fridge shake from her yanking it open, he watched her. Her whole body was cinched in anger, and she was being careless with her movements. He rolled his eyes and walked over to her. She was about to cut up some Dextro-fish, and he didn't want to have to deal with her slicing off a finger. So he reached over and grabbed the knife out of her hand as well as the fish. "I thought it was pretty clever." He said as he started cutting up the fish.

Shepard took in a deep breath before she went back to cooking, "It was clever. I just- never mind…" she sighed

"You were still upset from earlier when I embarrassed you." Saren stated holding back the urge to smirk.

Shepard concentrated on hiding the blush that wanted to come to her cheeks. She had really hoped he hadn't noticed, but she knew he did. "Have you ever tried eating human food?" She asked him trying to be nonchalant about avoiding his statement.

'A blatant change of topics if there ever was one,' Saren thought to himself as he poured in the cut up Dextro-Fish. "Why would I do that? I'd gain no nutrients from it, you know that."

"Aren't you curious how it might taste?"

"No. I've never had the desire to try something that won't benefit me. "

"How do you know it won't benefit you if you've never tried it?"

"That's where science comes in. Human food scientifically has no benefits for me." He said sarcastically.

"What if it's the most delicious food you might ever eat? Wouldn't that benefit the 'pleasure' center of your brain?"

"Stop that." Saren said without thinking.

"Stop what?" Shepard turned to him tilting her head slightly.

'Stop trying to convince me to try new things,' Saren thought anxiously. Rather than answer her question he just scowled at her. He already had to adjust with having a permanent partner/roommate, he wasn't sure if he could handle trying new foods as well. All his life he was used to a certain way of things. Military schedules of how his days were supposed to go. Most people would find that a boring life, but that was what he was used to. It made him feel comfortable.

Yet, even though Shepard was at the center of all of his anxiety lately she herself seemed to ease some of that away. She had this calming affect about her even though she didn't ever really say much. When she did talk she was honest, and direct, something Saren appreciated more than he thought he would.

Once the food was finished they both grabbed some and sat at the table and ate. Neither of them said anything for a while and Saren was content with that, until he felt Shepard's eyes on him. He then looked up at her and stared at her intent stare. The corners of her mouth were slightly turned upward as if she figured something out. "What?" he asked warily.

"Fuck me." She said plainly.

Saren instantly sat up. His eyes flew open and his adrenaline exploded through his veins. "WHA-" he began to say but was silenced by a spoon sliding into his mouth. The metal spoon tipped upward causing a sweet but grainy taste in his mouth. The substance was soft and mushy causing his tongue to examine its texture. 'It not unpleasant', Saren accepted with a calm swallow.

"Did you enjoy it?" Shepard asked still wearing her sly smirk.

"Don't shove things in my mouth." He growled at her and went back to his food. After he took a bite of his food he looked back up at her. "It was fine."

"Good." Shepard nodded and went back to eating.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own character and plot idea. The rest are all BIOWARE'S.**_

**Rule #9**

**Trust is earned, not given **

"Which door?" Saren asked in a low voice. After bidding their time and waiting for dinner time to arise, the two slowly crept up to the guards outside and knocked both of them out cold. Then just for good measure Shepard injected both guards with a long lasting dose of a sleeping aid. Once that was done, they entered the building by taking one of the guards key cards.

"Corridor on the right seems to be the dining, cafeteria, and sleeping area. Middle door is access to the shipping dock. Then the door on the left leads to the labs." Shepard explained looking down at her map. Saren nodded and began to move to the left door. "But there might be a hallway that connects the labs storage, to the storage units of the right corridor."

"Might be?" Saren asked turning around. Shepard then went up close to his body and offered her arm for him to see. Saren had to control his breathing with her so close. Her joke from last night kept replaying in his head. What if he had? What if he hadn't waited for her to finish her joke, and just would have reacted by taking her right then and there? What would she have done?

Even though he thought about it (a lot), he knew he wouldn't have. There was something that kept holding him back, and he wasn't quite sure what it was. At the beginning, he would have chalked it up to the fact that she was a human, but now nothing was quite set in stone.

"See." On the map, there was a room beside the labs and one by the storage unit directly across from the other. Each room only having three wall leading to the possibility of a connecting hallway.

"Then we'll just have to check when we get to it." Saren grunted and began walking towards the left corridor.

Quietly, they made their way down the empty hallway. The lights weren't very bright leaving shadows in various places. It was a good thing for sneaking, but it also meant that the chemicals they were dealing with were probably highly reactive. That meant their guns were going to have to be a last resort.

When they reached the end of the hallway, Saren placed his back against the wall of the door on the other side of the doors control panel. He then nodded for Shepard to check out the possible hallway. She gave him a quick nod and made her way to it. As she left, he concentrated on the sound of her footfalls, and the area around him. Infiltration was always a nerve racking part of their job, especially when someone catches you off guard.

Suddenly, the door sprang open. As soon as a scientist stepped out, Saren wrapped an arm around his waist and held a knife to his throat. Shepard then appeared by his side, "I wasn't able to take a look, but I put a lock on it to give us sometime in case something happens." Saren nodded and pulled out his gun with his free hand.

Once they were inside, Saren aimed his gun over his hostage's shoulder at the petrified scientists. "You are all under arrest by law of the Citadel Council. Hands up and make your way to the back wall." Most complied from fear, but a few attempted to try and contact the muscle elsewhere in the compound.

"Don't bother. We've jammed the signal." Shepard said. 'She jammed the signal,' Saren thought still relishing in the fact he didn't have to tell her to do something like that. Any other trainee or fellow Spectre it was like he had to approve every single action they took on a mission. He understood mostly it was because of his hard edged reputation, but they're supposed to be the elite of the elite, not common soldiers. He shouldn't have to micromanage all the action taken on a mission. Thankfully, he didn't have to anymore.

Once the scientists realized there was nothing else they could do, they complied by following their peers to the back. When the last one joined the others Saren let go of his hostage and kept his gun trained on all of them. Looking at them more closely Saren noticed the scientists just had on lab coats and gloves. Then with a quick scan around at the lab tables he noticed their masks on them, and their instruments recently cleaned. He concluded that the 'cooking' was done for the day, and he didn't have to worry exposure to anything toxic. "What's stopping all of us from taking you both down right now?" A human scientist threatened.

Saren stalked up to the man slowly. Then he bent down to stare into the humans eyes. Even though the human was trying to keep a strong facade, in the back of his cloaked eyes Saren could see the fear. Not to mention the quivering balled up hands, "The fact that I'm a Spectre, and I can easily take all of you down with not even the slightest exertion of energy. I've done it before and I could easily do it again."

"Impossible. There are no human Spectre's." A Salarian scientist scoffed towards Shepard. Saren could hear her sigh loudly as she continued hacking their laboratories data base.

"They do, as of a few months ago." She replied annoyed. Since she had graduated from Spectre training that seemed to be everyone's response whenever she was on a mission. Then there would be the patronizing comments about her species to her. Then they'd demand knowing her qualifications. After all that, they either walked away bruised, or afraid. Ignorance always rubbed her the wrong way.

Rather than go further into answering the Salarian, Shepard kept her focus on the task at hand. She had to admit whoever did their computers programming did very well. For once it was quite the challenge for her. She hand to dodge numerous amounts of firewalls, while simultaneously putting in discovered passwords to prevent others from being alerted about her raid. Yet, it wasn't something she couldn't handle.

As Shepard kept hacking and duplicating their files she came across a certain heavily guarded file. It was a very small file that seemed to just be a message sent to one of the scientists. Obviously, it was something important, something she needed to see. Quickly, she began focusing her attentions on getting pass the locks and encryption. Then after a few minutes she was able to get in.

_**The drug needs to be better, stronger. When are you going to do your job! Also, we expect you to start incorporating the virus. We also need faster transportation of supplies. These Quarian children are agreeing less and less. **_

_**Do not fail us anymore. You are replaceable. We are permanent. **_

'We? Who are We?' Shepard wondered adamantly. Yet, she felt that whoever this 'We' was they had tenure. Someone who could boss around the Blue Suns was definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Swiftly, Shepard began copying the message, "Saren." Shepard asked over their comm. Saren, still with his gun trained on the scientists hit his comm button on his wrist. "There's a message on this terminal to what I'm assuming is the lead scientist. It has evidence of what I was hypothesizing on the ship earlier."

"And?" He asked confused.

"Well, there's something el- AHHHH!" Shepard started explaining but was stopped by a sudden sharp pain in her leg. Ignoring the pain and tingling feeling, she swiftly bent down and swiped her leg at whomever it was that attacked her. She saw as the enemy jumped up effectively disengaging her stealth field generator.

An Asari with scars etched all over her face grinned at her, and backed away, "I hate little cockroaches. I didn't think that failed batch would come in handy, but it seems I was wrong. Enjoy your little trip I pray it will be your last." The Asari brought out a gun from under her lab coat and aimed it straight at Shepard who was still on the floor. Shepard then noticed on her map a blip coming from the woman, but before Shepard could address this, Saren shot the woman through the head.

Then like cascading dominoes, everything went crazy. The lights in the lab flickered and a loud siren wailed throughout the building. "Shit. She had a heart alarm." Shepard swore and attempted to stand up, but found that her legs were useless. Whatever she had been injected with just gave her paralysis. Since it worked so fast there's no telling what else could happen If she were to move. Yet, she knew staying there would equal certain death. "Saren gather the gear!"

Saren glared at the cowering scientists for a brief second, daring them to make a move on them. Then he turned around and quickly gathered their hard drives. Once he was done, he went over to Shepard and knelt down. "Got it, let's go." He said as he grabbed her wrist to help her up. Once he stood her up however, he noticed the lack of strength in her legs.

"It's some sort of paralysis, but I have an idea. Latch my legs around you and place them into your spurs." Shepard explained as she pulled out his pistol and her own. "Do you trust me?" She stared into his eyes with a fierce intensity.

Saren hesitated briefly for a number of reasons. Trusting people, even the ones he worked with, was a difficult thing for him. 'For her as well', he assumed from watching her interact with other people. There was also the fact that she would be wrapped around him so close, and since he was going to be doing the running, he wasn't going to be holding onto her back.

"It's now or never Saren!" She shouted to bring him back to the present.

With a loud grunt he hefted her up and roughly latched her legs into the cradle of his spurs. He swore that if his lower region 'reacted' as they ran, he was going to make her cook for the next 6 months. "Okay are you ready?" He asked.

"I trust you to." She said quickly as she placed her arms on his shoulders.

"What?"

"Since you trust me, I want you to know that I trust you as well." Shepard explained seriously. Saren nodded and with a deep breath waited for the door to open. Once it did he took off in a sprint.

He dodged, and plowed down Blue Suns and refusing to look back, or worry if he was bring shot at. He could hear her firing back at the shooters, and even heard a few of their dying shouts. He also heard and felt her wince with pain from shooting both of the pistols. Saren knew her hands were going to be broken by the time they got out of here, but that was a concern for later.

Suddenly, a large metallic sound came from out in front of him. Before crashing into it, Saren had to quickly bend around it. Once he did, he stumbled slightly, but caught himself on an open door frame. He then looked at the large metal giant, and froze in surprise.

Standing right before him was a Geth solider. They weren't supposed to be here! They were supposed to be behind the Perseus Veil. "That's a Geth!" The two Spectres shouted, but before they could even start to wonder why it was here its metal arms brought up an assault rifle and started to aim. Quickly, Shepard shot through its large LED headlight. It stumbled backward and fell against a wall. It's light and screen cracked, dead.

Without time to think, Saren started running again being even more cautious for the potential of more Geth. He kept running even as he rounded the corner to the front entrance. He quickly halted once he saw a large group of Blue Suns aiming their weapons at him. As he stared down the guns he couldn't help but think that this wasn't quite how he pictured his death to be like. Most Turians that do some sort of combat for a living; imagine a glorious death on facing off against a worthy opponent. At least that's how Saren felt his death would be. He hadn't even considered the possibility of dying as he clenched the butt of a human.

Out of nowhere Saren felt Shepard's thighs tighten around his torso. Then she arched herself backwards causing her pelvis to grind against his stomach as he held her up. She then brought out a frag grenade and lobbed it behind the group the enemies. Next she shot herself upward and covered Saren's face as the grenade exploded. The explosion was loud as its sound waves bounced along the rooms walls. She was grateful for her helmet being able to dampen enough of it so her ears weren't ringing.

Luckily, her gamble paid off and all the enemies were either dead or writhing around in pain. Shepard was worried that there weren't enough bodies to absorb the blast, and it was going to result in some sort of injury to them. Thankfully, it hadn't.

Saren began sprinting again and once they were out of the compound both of them quickly threw up their own stealth fields. "Six months!" Saren grumbled embarrassed and upset.

"What?" Shepard asked confused.

"Six months you're cooking for us!"

"That hardly seems fair. It's not as if I asked to be drugged." She replied confused and somewhat flustered. She was going to argue more when her heart started racing and her vision blurred. The dark red world turned purple and creatures resembling Hanar started pushing themselves out of the ground. She would be panicking if it weren't for the fact that she heard Sarens low chirps and sounds of his native tongue rather than his translated words.

It was a pleasant noise that eased her fear. He sounded like doves or pigeons when they cooed. "Saren, the drugs affecting my speech implant and I can't understand you." Sarens reply was a deep, but loud abrupt chirp. "I'm going to assume you said 'what?!' I'm seeing Honar emerging from the ground... Oh and naked males... I didn't even know I knew what a naked Volus looked like. Interesting. I must have seen it in anatomy text books Vitarian gave to me... They're quite well endowed, thickness wise."

She was blabbering like a Salarian now, but it made the crazy speed at which he was sprinting at quite entertaining. He wanted to tell her to shut up, but she wouldn't have understood it since she couldn't make out what he was saying. The fact that that drug could affect the speech implant is even more worrying. It made sense to him now why all those cases ended up violent. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to hallucinate and not understand anyone who would be trying to help you out. Yet, it wouldn't make sense why the Blue Suns would market a drug like that. There would be no repeat customers at that point. 'They must not know about it,' he realized. That meant Shepard was right, someone else was orchestrating this whole operation. 'Finally, something challenging,' he thought excitedly.

Once Saren came to the area of his ship, he pulled out his Omni- tool and set it to travel to the main hub on the planet. When they got on, the ship began to rise up into the air. Quickly, he placed Shepard down on the entrances cold ground. His legs were on fire at this point, and his lungs grasped at the air he greedily breathed in. As soon as he could, he tore off his helmet and went over to an oxygen tank by his locker. Next, he attached an oxygen mask to his face and began taking in deep breaths. Once he caught his breath, he used his Omni-tool to call out to the main hub. "This is Spectre Saren Arterius we need law enforcement to dispatch to these coordinates of an illegal drug compound of the Blue Suns. I also require emergency medical services at the dock. My partner was injected with an unknown drug, but the base of it is the new Blue Drop narcotic."

"Affirmative. Enforcement and medical services dispatched. What is the state of your partner?" A voice asked over his Omni-tool.

"Hallucinations, paralysis in the legs."

"Are they allergic to anything?"

He...had...no...idea! He cursed loudly to himself. That should have been something they talked about. Now there was no way of asking her!

He crawled over to her and carefully, but quickly pulled off her helmet. "Ask that again." He demanded. The voice asked again but Shepard shook her head and stared at him confused. "Is there a human with you? The drugs also attacking her speech implant and she can't understand alien speech." Saren explained quickly.

There was some loud moving of equipment and muffled talking over the microphone, "Sugar, are you allergic to anything?" A female voice asked over the comm link. Saren hadn't ever heard that accent of a human before. Why did she refer to Shepard as a cooking ingredient?

Shepard smiled and looked at the Omni-tool, "I haven't heard a southerner's voice in a long time. No allergies. But my mother's side had sickle cell anemia, and my father's side has blood pressure problems."

"Alright, sugar….I haven't heard a northerners voice in a long time neither."

"Boat." Shepard said and the voice on the other end laughed loudly which made Shepard smirk.

"We'll take good care of ya honey, don't you worry." The woman said and then the comm link went dead.

Saren looked at her confused. "It's a human thing. I'll explain it later. Right now I'm seeing multiple versions of you in different states of undress." She said as her eyes moved all around her. She didn't even realize she was biting her bottom lip, but Saren did notice and he definitely was going to remember that.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own character and plot idea. The rest are all BIOWARE'S.**_

**Rule #9 **

**No Whining**

Saren stretched his back as he got up from his ships console. He had just finished their report on the Blue Drop mission as well as, looked over the information Shepard had gathered. He was impressed with the amount of it at first, but after hours of sifting through it he was quite ready to get rid of it all. He wished Shepard would have been the one doing it, but she was out of commission for a while. He just hoped that she wouldn't be out from anything serious.

When they had arrived at the dock the emergency medical staff came in and took her away. They talked and talked to him attempting to get as much information out of him about her as they could. He couldn't tell him much besides the basics. Which made him feel guilty, but what concerned him more was her current situation.

By the time they had arrived to the dock he had to physically hold her down. Something that she was seeing made her thrash around trying to attack whatever phantom monster that was attacking her. She would shout non sensual things as she backed into him. It had seemed so real, a few times he even tried to look around for the enemy. He had thought maybe one of the Blue Suns had snuck on board. Yet, he knew they were alone, and all he could do was hold her arms to her as she waged war against something that wasn't there until they came and took her away.

Sighing loudly, Saren bent forward in his chair. He ran his talons along his neck. He hadn't heard any news of Shepard's condition, causing him to feel immensely anxious. He was worried, that much he realized. Even though he would never admit it to her, he somewhat enjoyed her around. He liked her serene quietness, her cooking... her.

With that thought his heart raced, but instead of attempting to calm it down, or pretend it wasn't happening, he closed his eyes to enjoy it. He racked his brain for moments he ever felt like that about someone else. Yet, the only one he could seem to find was when his brother Desolas went off to fight against a warring tribe. At the time Saren had only been, and Desolas was his world. His big brother was great at everything. His parents, and many others in his tribe, always gushed about him. Even Saren's young peers would tell him how lucky he was to have an older brother like Desolas. It made Saren feel so proud, even more so when Desolas came back a war hero.

Yet, this wasn't his brother, not even really a friend. This was just a girl, and yet not just a _girl_. Saren's heart raced even more. 'She's something more', how much more he couldn't quite pin point, nor did he want to. For now, he decided just to let his thoughts wander into very stimulating territories.

"Mr. Arterius." A voice sounded over his ships _comms_.

Saren sat up straight in surprise. Right when his thoughts were getting good, "Yes?" He demanded gruffly.

"Ms. Shepard is stabilized. Her paralysis is cured as well. The other symptoms are lessened, but just need to pass through her system."

Saren stood up and started heading towards that door. "I understand. I'll be there in ten minutes."

"Well she might not-"

"Nine minutes."

The ships door opened and he exited almost in a jog. People stared and pointed as he passed by. Some that were bold enough took photos, or took video of him. It wasn't an uncommon response, but one he never got used to. Attention just made his job harder. Right now though, he was just in too much of an anxious state to deal with it.

Once he arrived at the medical center he angrily glared down a nurse until she finally would help him. All he said was 'Shepard'. The nurse then stood up with a sigh and started walking down a hallway, "She just got done with a lot of tests and injections. She needs to rest." She stated.

"I agree."

"Then why-"

"Protection." He said hoping she would catch on that he really didn't want to talk.

The nurse stopped and looked at him for a moment. Then she nodded and continued walking. They walked until they got to the end of a hallway deep into the medical center. Whoever was placed in the other rooms in the hallway were either dead, dying, or in comas since it was dead silent. Apparently, they had taken his request earlier for a room that was secure very seriously. He was actually looking forward to the peace and quiet.

The nurse lightly knocked on the door, and then opened it. "Ms. Shepard you have a visitor...what are you doing out of bed?!" She almost shouted.

Shepard leaned against a wall with her legs out in front of her, pushing her backside against it as she messed with her Omni-tool. Her hospital gown went to her mid-thigh showing off her thick tan thighs and strong legs. As he looked closer, Saren noticed the same ring like scars around her knees and ankles. The same scars were also around her elbows and wrists. They were old, already, healed scars that just provided more questions for Saren. "Hello Saren." Shepard said.

She then placed her arms against the wall she was against and pushed herself off. She stretched and walked up to him. "Get back in the bed." Saren scolded her. She sighed annoyed and got back into her uncomfortable hospital bed. She didn't mind hospitals. She just hated recovery length. Even though she probably only needed to stay there for one day, she still felt that it would take way to long. She could think of millions of things she could be doing, and rest was not one of them.

Saren then walked over with a pleased smirk, and sat down in the one chair in the room. With that, the nurse chuckled and left them alone. They were quiet as they sat there and stared at the wall across from them.

"Why can't I be on the ship for this?! This is soooo boring! Do you know how long it took me to find connection to the Extranet!" Shepard exploded unable to keep her thoughts to herself. She knew she was still under some of the Blue Drops side effects, like her excessive amount of energy, but she felt like she could deal with it just fine.

"Shut up." Saren yawned.

"There's nothing here! There's no TV! Hospitals always have TV! Bullshit all of it!"

"Stop complaining. We're not going anywhere." Saren replied calmly. Internally, he was finding this quite hilarious. Shepard on a daily basis never really spoke more than 100 words. Now she was rattling, and ranting things that just didn't seem to stop from spilling out of her mouth.

"Who's complaining? I'm not complaining! I don't know how to complain. All I know what to do is say; _No sir; Yes sir; Yes, I promise I'll be careful around Saren_," Saren snapped his eyes over to Shepard then. "Wide eyes and attention, that means you're surprised about the Saren thing. Can you blame everyone? You prance around like some hard ass xenophobic thug. Well maybe you don't prance, but anytime somebody brings up the humans, you always have something negative to say. Some sort of statement that downgrades the capabilities of humans. I don't know if you realize this yet or not, but people hang on your every word. Some even would live by it if you decided you would want to become a politician."

Saren's eyes slowly drifted down as he thought about what she said. Yes, he did openly speak against the possibility of humans getting a seat on the council, but it was because he thought it was too fast. There were other Aliens that had been there longer. Albeit, most Saren felt, weren't even close to being ready to have somebody on the Council. In that sense the humans would be on the top of that list. However, this didn't make Saren xenophobic, but those that did believe it avoided him. Something he wished more people would do anyways. "I don't hate humans."

"I know." Shepard said looking over at him. "You just like being alone. It's understandable considering your preference of solitude, instead of spending time with people. You must really hate me for sticking around for so long. I mean you did try to kill me." She laughed after that.

Her laugh was loud, but not obnoxious. It caused Saren to relax. His shoulders eased of tension and he laid his arms down on his chairs armrests. A sudden wave of exhaustion overcame him as he eased back. He wondered how long he had been so wound up. As he wondered his eyes drifted over to her.

Shepard had nothing wrong with her besides a couple of scrapes and bruises. At least that explosion didn't seem to have hurt her, which meant that she didn't need any lengthy recuperating time. Yet, that wasn't the only thing he was apparently thankful about. "I didn't try to kill you." He admitted in a somber voice. Shepard tilted her head confused, but before she could ask anything he raised up a talon to quiet her. "I…was surprised. Those _mercs_ surprised me."

"You would rather have me think you tried to kill me than admit that you were caught by surprise?" Shepard asked visibly angry and confused.

Saren smirked and decided that he liked that look on her. The angry puffy red cheeks and sharp green eyed glare she drove into him, just made him want to see it more. Finally her face wasn't so stoic. "Yes I would."

"WHAT! How does that make sense?! You don't make any sense! All this time I thought that you would do anything to make sure I would die during missions! Do you realize how paranoid I became?! For a few days I even started waking up in the middle of the night because I thought I heard someone sneaking around in the closet of a living space I have on your ship. UGH, you are so infuriating! I just want to stab you right now! All that paranoia because you were afraid to admit that some people snuck up on you!" Shepard yelled at him. 'She would be good at scolding a child, if she wasn't so erratic right now,' Saren thought as he listened to her. His mind drifted over to the thought of her yelling at a small child.

Either the child did something like steal a cookie out of the cookie jar, or broke an expensive vase, his mind didn't say, but it did show that the child was a Turian. Its outer plates pale like his and its eyes hazel like hers.

He took in a hidden, but shocked breath of air. That was not the line of thought he wanted to have. "You know, admitting your afraid is a brave thing to do." Shepard said quietly. He looked over at her still surprised from his daydream. "We were lucky that we were so close to a medical station. It was stupid of us not to talk about any important medical information."

They were both quiet as they considered what could have happened, rather than what had. It was luck that they got out as unscathed as they had. Important information like that was something they should have talked about right away. Yet, their insecurities got in the way, among other things.

"But we did work well together." Saren said admitting the obvious.

Shepard smiled as she eased down into the mattress, "That we did."


	11. Chapter 11

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own character and plot idea. The rest are all BIOWARE'S.**_

**Rule #11**

**Don't Try to Trick me**

"I don't know Mr. Vashual. If you really didn't kill that young Asarii then why did I find a letter addressed to her from you stating that if she went public with your affair, you would beat her until every orifice she had was bleeding? Then all of a sudden a few days later she ends up just like that?" Shepard asked the flailing man being held over a railing by Saren. Once they had found their Target Vashual, they took him into an alleyway in the Presidium. They wanted to make sure no one would come up and disturb their 'interrogation'.

"Please, I don't know what you're talking about!" The terrified man cried as he dangled in the air.

"Tsk, tsk Mr. Vasuhl. Now we both know that's not true." Shepard pulled out a picture of the man, and the young Asarii locked in a rather 'explicit' position in the alley next to the Flux nightclub on the Citadel. "That is you shouting in ecstasy, is it not?" Shepard bent down and shoved the picture in his face. His face turned an incredible shade of red that was most likely amplified from the blood rushing to his head. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Yeah! So what if I had a piece of that ass? That doesn't mean I killed her." He shouted in her face.

Shepard shook her head and stood back up. Then she turned her back on Saren. Earlier, they decided that would be a signal telling Saren that he could 'persude' Vashual with whatever means he wanted to use. Giving an evil smirk to the scared man, Saren loosened his grip on Vashual's ankles. Once he had Vashual started panicking, "Mr. Vashual I do not appreciate when people insult my intelligence." Shepard sighed faking an air of tiredness. "When I'm not happy my partner here isn't happy. And he's willing to do anything to make sure I'm happy. If that means getting rid of a problem permanently, wellllll… " Shepard trailed off.

'When did I become a hired brute?' Saren asked himself as he glared at Shepard. She smirked as she turned back around and leaned against the railing coolly.

When they started to interrogate Vashual, she turned into Infiltrator Shepard. Her stance and attitude shifted into that of a domineering personality that had people fall under her spell. Some felt fear, as others found safety. For Saren, he felt uncomfortable, yet amused. Although he wasn't foolish enough to no be apprehensive when she was liked that. Shepard was dangerous before becoming like that, so he could only imagine how volatile she would be if pushed enough in that state. He hoped that Shepard wouldn't be turned onto him.

"We have your bat Vashual! Old school, I'll give you that, but hiding it in a safe in your office? So stupid."

'Especially, since I could hack that safe without even acknowledging it.' Shepard internally rolled her eyes. Prior to braking in Vashual's office, they had talked to a scorned employee of Vashual's who had told them that Vashual had kept the murder weapon as some sort of intimidation tactic for all his underlings. You can only push people so far until they retaliate. Vashual was just too stupid to realize that. However, Shepard didn't understand quite how much until she (on a whim) decided to break into the large safe in his closet. Then in plain sight, there it was in all its dried bloody gore. She almost wanted to laugh at the idiocy.

"Alright, alright I did it I killed that girl!" He yelled. "Please don't kill me! She was going to tell my wife! It would have ruined my marriage and business! What was I supposed to do?"

"Hmm I wonder." Saren said sarcastically as he pulled him back over the railing, and then shoved him to the ground. Saren opened up his Omni-tool and patched himself through to C-sec. "Have somebody come and meet Shepard and I for a prisoner pick up."

"Yes Mr. Arterius." A voice said and cut off the comm. link.

"Well that was easy. At least we get some shore time now." Shepard sighed as she stood up and stretched. Her usual blank expression appeared on her face, and she started fiddling with her Omni-tool.

She was looking forward for some time off. After their escapade on Asteria, they were sent out to numerous backwater stations to follow up on Shepard's hypothesis of possible smuggling Quarion's. Even though she had been right, a vast majority of those ships weren't smuggling anything. They also didn't find anymore messages, or other clues that involved _'We_'. She felt no closer to finding the cult, then when they first found the message.

Shepard sighed and rubbed the back of her head. No matter how hard she tried she just couldn't shake the exhaustion she felt. She had been working non-stop for many months. Her body and more so joints, needed rest. "You look like shit!" A voice shouted. Shepard spun her head to see her brown plated friend cockily walking down the hall followed by C-sec officers.

"Said the pot to the kettle." She muttered.

"What?" Nihlus asked her confused.

"Nothing. So how are you?"

"Oh you know, stopped a few mercenary groups. Caught a few high bountied criminals. Stoped an uprising on a planet outside the verge."

"Sounds boring." Saren said as he walked between them. Shepard turned automatically and followed behind Saren. Nihlus just stood there in shock. Then coming out of it, he ran to catch up, "Did you just make a joke!" Nihlus shouted.

Saren rolled his eyes, and like the trained military professional he was, he stared straight ahead and ignored distracting 'noises'.

"He's quite funny if you care to listen." Shepard stated plainly.

Nihlus looked between the two ecstatically. He had never imagined that he would ever see Saren so slackened, tranquil (in a very loose sense of the word). Yet, here his mentor was walking with immensely less tense muscles and a sense of swagger like he used to in all those old holotapes Nihlus had watched of Saren when Saren first became a Spectre. More surprisingly, the cause of such rejuvenation was the shorter human woman standing beside him. For some reason it made NIhlus feel relieved.

"Don't encourage him." Saren stated

"Please encourage me. I love to be encouraged." Nihlus purred to Shepard. He then started to reach over to jokingly pat her backside, but was stopped by Saren grabbing his wrist.

Saren's grip on his Nihlus wasn't even remotely tight, but he still held on. Then all at once he let go and faced forward again. Saren was embarrassed to say the least, by that blatant show of emotion. He just reacted, that was all. There wasn't any reason behind it. He hoped.

"Don't be so lewd Nihlus." Saren said covering up his sudden physical Freudian slip.

"She doesn't mind me being lewd, do you Sam?" Nihlus asked taking his wrist back.

"No, I'm used to it, but he seems to." Shepard stated.

'Damn her! Damn her and that ability to see through everything!' Saren shouted internally. He had almost gotten away with it and now he could feel Nihlus smirking like the mischievous imp he was. In an attempt to save face, Saren started walking again making sure not to look at either of them.

"I think our Saren likes you Sam." Nihlus stated. He was so glad that he wasn't Saren's trainee anymore. Otherwise this little joke would have gotten him a very, very, very sore body from numerous hours of 'training'. Once had been enough for a life time in his book.

"I think I have grown on him in our time together," Shepard smiled, "Just as he's grown on me." Saren looked over at her in surprise. Then boldly she wrapped her arm into the crook of his. They were just in civilian clothes, so her arm slipped in easily. As she felt his arm, she was surprised by how it felt. They weren't smooth like humans, since he didn't have any soft flesh and fat that coated the exposed muscles, but they still were smooth. She ignored his discomfort as she ran her fingers along his upper forearm, exploring all the bumps and soft spots she came across. She wondered how they would feel exposed to her fingertips rather than through a thin sweater.

Her exploration was stopped short when he grunted and swatted her fingers. "Stop that!" Saren whispered fiercely into her ear.

Her skin shuttered from the ghost like contact between his breath and her ear. Then she quickly unwound herself and allowed a slight blush rise to her cheeks, "I'm sorry! That started out as a joke, but I got lost in exploring your muscles."

"Exploring his muscles?! Were they to your liking?" Nihlus asked coyly. He knew she wasn't going to pick up on his hinting, and he knew Saren was most likely going to be upset with him, but this was way too good to pass up.

"Yes they are." Shepard stated plainly. She couldn't help but wonder why it was so important if Turian muscles were to her liking. They were like any other muscles really.

Saren looked over at her with his eyes wide. The salvia in his mouth ran dry and he tried desperately to keep his recent day dreams at bay. He enjoyed seeing her in her _civies_. Her breasts were bound a little less, her long sleeved shirt and pants hung more loosely than as tight as her armor. The curls of her hair were more defined by the pleasantly scented product she put in that morning. All In all, like she admired his muscles, he had been admiring her.

Saren coughed, "Thank you." He then spun his head and glared at Nihlus, "I'm glad you appreciate TURIAN musculature." Saren knew what Nihlus was trying to do. Predictability was always Nihlus's downfall.

Nihlus laughed and slapped Saren's back. "You can't blame me for trying." He then bent close into Saren. "But I am glad to see you two getting along."

He truly was. The whole time after Saren and Shepard's first meeting, he had been worried, more so after the explosion. He had no idea if and how they were ever going to get along. Albeit, the two were not complete opposites, but not alike either. They were like two Varrens fighting for dominance, and because of fear. Since Nihlus knew each one well enough to know their social insecurities ruled quite a bit over their lives, he would find himself wondering at times how their union would affect those shortcomings. After all, it made them social outcasts to the rest of the world, so forcing those insecurities to mesh with one another's had the potential for either horrid disaster, or serenity. As it seemed now, the later had prevailed.

"We're partners, for better or for worse." Saren stated plainly never faltering in his pace.

Nihlus chuckled at Saren's ignorant slip of the tongue, "Whatever you say. Where are we going anyways?"

"To tell an Asarii woman that we caught her daughter's killer."

"Glad I could help."

"By help you mean doing nothing at all. Then following us because you overheard me talking to C-sec."

Nihlus faked a gasp, "I am offended that you think so little of me. Your partner thinks highly of me, don't you Shepard?" He bent back to look at Shepard, but she wasn't there.

They both stopped, and then noticed she had halted a few feet behind. She wore a stoic face but her surprised eyes gave her away. Her gaze was fixated in front of them staring at a man who was talking with the Asarii they were supposed to find. The man looked a lot like Shepard, Saren noted. The Man had lighter tan skin, the same hazel eyes, and even shorter curled hair. 'Her brother,' Saren realized. Yet, Shepard's reaction was curious. She wasn't happy like he expected her to be. Instead, she looked almost terrified and wanting to flee. Seeing her react like this Saren almost wanted to run away with her.

Saren looked over at her brother and noticed that he was staring at Shepard the same way, but with anger behind his eyes. Something catastrophic had happened between the two, something Saren felt wouldn't be resolved today. Then Just as he was about to turn around and take Shepard away, the Asarii saw them. "Mr. Arterius, Ms. Shepard!" She called out and waved an anxious hand at them.

After a deep breath Shepard was the first to walk forward never looking away from her brother. The walk felt long, like she was trudging through water. Each step brought more resistance and pain then the last. Despite that she kept walking forward.

The anger that rolled off her brother was suffocating, but even with a tight throat, she breathed. "Hello Ms. Attonae."

"H-hello. I'd like you to meet Mr. Wilkson, he was one of Marie's best friends. D- Did-" the Asarii stuttered holding back tears.

"We found evidence that Mr. Vashual murdered your daughter. We interrogated him, and he admitted to it. He'll be going to jail for a long time." Saren stated taking over the reins of the conversation. He was trying to get them out of there without alerting to the obvious elephant in the room, but the Asarii woman was so overcome with grief that she latched onto Shepard in a tight hold.

Despite Shepard's lack of ability to show emotions, accepting them from others came easy to her. The only reason she was able to comfort others was because she was the eldest of three. She was the one who they came crying to from neglect by their mother, and even somewhat their father. She was their rock. Was.

'So he took his wife's last name,' Shepard thought to herself as she rubbed the grieving mothers back. After sometime the Asarii pulled away and dried her eyes. Then she gave the two Spectres relieved smiles, "Thank you. We both thank you! Oh I haven't really introduced Daniel to you. He's a physician that specializes in all species anatomy. He's very good, very well known, and just got a job here on the Citadel."

There was a stiff air as Shepard turned to Daniel. The last time she had seen him physically was when he got his master's degree in Species Anatomy. Even then it was fleeting. He wanted nothing to do with her, that pill she tried to swallow over and over again with no luck. At least he allowed her to keep in touch with his wife and children. "Congratulations Dan-"

"Thank you both for finding Marie's killer." Daniel said intentionally to Saren. He then turned and gave the Asarii a tight hug, "I'll see you later tonight Diane. Lisa and the kids are excited to see you again." He turned and almost ran to get a shuttle back to his office.

The Asarii stared after him confused. Then her questioning eyes fell on Shepard, "Did you two know each other?" She asked her.

"Long ago. I wish you well Ms. Attonae." Shepard said and began walking away. Nihlus went to go after her, but Saren grabbed his arm.

"You may go to C-sec for more information on what's going to happen as far as a trial is concerned. Goodbye." With that Saren turned away from her, and dragged Nihlus with him. Nihlus rightfully, struggled to go after his friend, but Saren knew that's not what Shepard wanted right now.

When he had been told of Desolas's treachery he had been so angry. Anytime people tried to comfort him he would go into a rage, becoming even colder than he was before. That part of Shepard he wasn't quite ready to see, but more importantly then that, he wasn't ready for Nihlus to be the one to see it first.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own character and plot idea. The rest are all BIOWARE'S.**_

**Rule #12**

**Keep your food on your side**

Saren kept quiet as he dragged a protesting Nihlus back to Saren's apartment. Once inside, Nihlus wiggled out of his grip and stood in front of him with his arms folded across his mid-section. He continued to glare at Saren awaiting an answer. "She's not ready." Saren stated, meeting Nihlus's glare with one of his own.

"I don't think you realize what's going on. That was-" Nihlus began.

"Her brother, I know. I also know she doesn't want to talk to anyone about this, yet."

It took Nihlus a few moments to understand what Saren could have possibly meant. Until it dawned on him, "Desolas." He sighed sadly. That was a subject Nihlus didn't really talk with Saren to often. Anytime he tried he'd either get ignored or yelled at. It was like a blood thirsty battleground that Saren was always fighting on. It was apparent to everyone how much it consumed Saren. Physically the inner conflict made him look so much older than his age actual age. Saren was only in his 40's after all.

"Yes, Desolas." Saren grunted agitatedly. Saren really hoped Nihlus wasn't going to do what he knew Nihlus was going to. Like anyone whoever hears about Desolas always does.

"Saren... He didn't give you a choice." Nihlus whispered.

"That doesn't clean his blood off of my hands." Saren stated plainly. The few that did know about his brother would always say something to that cause. He hated it. He didn't need pity from them, or comfort. All he wanted was someone to just accept what had happened and not bring it up. After all, that was how his family always deals with problems.

Saren walked over to his fridge to see what food he still had, and what food he needed to go get. He smirked when he saw the deep blue line of tape that separated Shepard's food from his. The second or third day of living together Saren had gone to get his favorite fish flavored snacks from the fridge. When he opened it up he found Shepard's Levo food containers mixed with his Dextro food containers. Something that would have taken mere seconds to do, took him almost 5 minutes. He remembered storming out of the apartment and buying the blue tape and meticulously lining up the fridge and its compartments in half. He even forced her to come out and watch him do so for payback of her wasting his time earlier.

Now, as he pushed and moved ingredients around looking for something already pre made, he noticed a brown bar of food on Shepard's side. With one talon, he moved the bar out onto his carefully laid out line. The foil surrounding it crinkled as he moved the plastic wrap out of the way to read the name. 'Milk chocolate...That was the food she was so adamant about having at the Medical Center,' Saren remembered.

Carefully, he pulled out the foreign treat and examined it. There was really nothing to it, just the insignia of the manufacturer and fancy creases for someone to break it easily. What her obsession was with it, he couldn't understand. It didn't even look that appetizing to him. He turned the brown bar around as he examined it. Then sighing he took a small chunk of it off. Her other food that she forced him to try had been tasty, after all.

"Is that human chocolate?" Nihlus asked as he leaned on the islands counter top.

"Yes." Saren replied.

"I wouldn't eat that if I were you. It's _wayyyy_ to sweet! I ate a whole bar once and was deathly sick."

"That's your fault for being so simple, that you would gorge yourself on a foreign life forms food."

"I was drunk!"

"Cements my accusation even more, doesn't it." Then like the rebellious Turian he was, he placed the chocolate in his mouth.

Nihlus had one thing right. It was very sweet, but not unpleasant. Saren closed his eyes as he swirled the sweet treat around his mouth. Shepard had been right to obsess over the substance. No Turian food was as sweet as this. Since their food was highly based on protein it typically had a strong bitter taste. Even their deserts were somewhat salty.

As Saren hummed quietly from the ecstasy of the chocolate, and Nihlus watched on in disgust, the apartment door opened. Shepard came in quietly and closed the door as such. Then she walked through the living room and turned the corner to the kitchen. The two Turin's hadn't noticed her yet so, she opted just to watch them. However, she did instantly notice that her chocolate bar was in Saren's hand. "How can you enjoy that!?" Nihlus cried out in erratic chirps.

"It's not bad if you have the ability to savor it, and not shove it all in at once." Saren stated as he opened one glaring eye at him. His eye then closed again going back to enjoying the bliss the chocolate gave him. Sweet, sweet bliss.

"What's it taste like?" Nihlus asked enjoying this side of Saren.

"Shepard..." He sighed quietly. Then instantly he stiffened, and shot open his eyes. That was not what he had meant to say! At least not out loud. Nihlus lurched forward on his arms excitedly. He knew that Saren would never mean to let something like that out. Saren always kept his head in every situation. It was remarkable to him that he even was there to witness such a slip.

"Holy Spirits!" Nihlus said stunned.

Saren knew there was no recovering from this. He was going to have to kill Nihlus before the idiot would go and tell the other idiots, or reveal that to-"So that's what I'd taste like." Shepard said from beside him. Her voice was smooth and low; controlled.

'Shit!', Saren swore internally. His body was rooted to the ground, but it was as if he was caught in a drug induced fog; his shoulders were lax and his head light as a feather. Suddenly, her fingers dragged across his shoulder all the way to his chin. With a slight tug downward he lowered his face to hers. Her hazel eyes were taunting as they peered sharply into his. Willingly, he remained trapped.

Shepard liked this side of him. Placid, and willing to become ensnared. It wasn't the first time she had ever entranced a man. She'd done it many times before when she was a part of the Infiltration sector. However, this was the first time she had done it as herself. It was invigorating. It was scary. It was wonderful.

She then brought her lips around the other side of the stick of chocolate sticking out of Saren's lips. She could feel him quiver on the other end. She watched his dark blue, ever attentive cyber-eyes lower as if he was falling asleep. Pushing her limit of seduction, she pushed out a heated breath onto his hard lips. The act caused him to release a low purr. Shepard then let out a pleased chuckle and broke off the trance by snapping the chocolate in half. Then she stepped back and went to the fridge, "You realize you're buying me another chocolate bar." She stated as she looked for something to snack on.

An unabashed Saren then spun around and positioned himself behind her. "Only if you do that again." He told her quietly. He sneered evilly behind her a he gently ran his finger along her spine. He knew how to flirt as well.

'Oh dear god my legs.' Shepard panicked as they nearly collapsed on themselves. She then took in a deep breath and let out a convincing chuckle. Then Shepard took out some cheese to eat. When she eased away from Saren and the fridge, she leaned up against a counter top.

The three were quiet for a while, Nihlus more so because of what he had just witnessed. He had just seen his hard ass mentor and his sweet friend, flirt. Honest to Spirits, flirt! And not fake doing-this-because-it's-my-job flirt. This day was getting weirder and weirder. "What the hell was that?" He asked looking rapidly between the two.

"Two adults engaging in a jaunty palaver." Saren replied still staring at Shepard. Even though she was smiling he could tell that she was still feeling a mixture of emotions from earlier. She wasn't fully there with them, but rather replaying memories in her head. He knew that state of mind all too well.

"Sam, about what happened earlier…" Nihlus began. He walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, "He doesn't hate you."

"Oh please, we both know he does! I became, and did everything he hated Nihlus. He should hate me." Shepard replied angrily.

"He's just confused! I mean you did just up and leave after your mother died. Did you ever really explain why to him?"

"THERE WASN'T A POINT!" Shepard shouted. She then shoved Nihlus's hand off her shoulder. She then went around the island and stood there lividly with her hands grabbing her hair on the back of her head in handfuls. "There's never going to be a point in doing that! He's living a happy life, with a wonderful wife, and beautiful children. I will not ruin that for him by weaseling my way into that!"

Saren had never seen Shepard in such a state of anger. Her eyes were wide and sharp. He couldn't understand how Nihlus was just staring at her sadly. If she had been staring at him like that, he would start preparing for a fight. Even now, he could feel his muscle tightening in preparation for one. "Sam-" Nihlus sighed.

"Shut up." She interrupted and began heading for her room, "SHUT UP!" Then after a few seconds they both heard her slam her room's door.

Saren looked over at NIhlus, who just looked at the ground sad and confused. Nihlus then took in a deep breath and looked over at him. To put the happy go lucky Nihlus into this kind of state left Saren at a loss for words. No matter what situation Nihlus always had some sort of humorous thing to say. It always got on Saren nerves. Saren always tried to get him to shut up like this, but always failed to. In any other situation maybe he would feel happy that Nihlus was finally quiet, but now, from this situation, he felt somewhat dejected from it. "She'll be fine."

"Will she? Sometimes I wonder." Nihlus replied. He took in another deep breath and headed for the door, "Your turn."

"Mine?!" Saren asked confused.

"You've been through this before. Give it a shot. Who knows maybe you'll get to 'bond' with her." Nihlus lewdly hinted before he walked out of the apartment.

Saren rolled his eyes and walked to his room, but stopped before he went in. His talons slid against Shepard's door. It was as if he could feel the pain that irradiated from her. A sharp pain then rolled through his arm at the thought. Should he go in? Will he just make things worse? Why did it matter? It didn't. Of course it didn' least he tried to convince himself that her pain didn't bother him. His talons then lightly tapped an unfamiliar song on the wooden door before he decided to find relief in his own room.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own character and plot idea. The rest are all BIOWARE'S.**_

**Rule #13**

**Regret your decisions on your own time**

"This is getting to be a bit awkward." Shepard said as she sat on Saren's bed. The room was pitch black except for when a breeze would blow in through his open window causing the curtains to blow open every now and again, casting the room in light for the few brief seconds it would take for the curtain to fall back into place.

"You were the one who decided to break into my room." Saren sighed in frustration. He then fell back onto his bed. In truth, he wasn't that shocked to see her sitting there, which meant he was getting used to her being around. And that was a hell of a lot worse in his mind. Then with a sigh he rubbed his face angrily with his palms. He wanted to tell her to get out of his room, but the fact that she was here peaked his curiosity.

"My father hates me." Shepard whispered quickly as she stared at her hands on her lap. She was incredibly nervous right now. Opening up was never something she liked doing. Mostly because of the circumstances that made up her 'childhood'. She felt, they were just too strange and complicated for people to understand. Even Nihlus was uncomfortable, no matter how much he tried to hide it, when she told him about her relationship with her brother, and what lead to it. That was one of the lesser messed up situations she's had. Yet, with Saren she felt maybe he would understand. At the least, she knew she needed to explain what happened earlier.

"You're not the only one." Saren replied plainly. Shepard turned sideways and looked at him curiously. "What? You expected my parents to love me after I killed their son?"

At first, she opened her mouth and then closed it again, not quite sure how to respond. "Your brother was on his way to enslaving your tribe, your species. There was no other option." Shepard ended up stating.

"Besides letting him live, and taking a team to capture him alive?" Saren replied bored. He wondered how many times he's had this conversation. Because of this, it made him hate it whenever he had to repeat himself.

"True but it would have been at the exp-"

"-expense of millions of Turians. I know."

"That, and you realizing how far gone your brother was. You admired him so much, and looked up to him. You must have been so devastated by how much I-… he changed."

That slip up caused Saren to look over to where he imagined she was. The curtain then blew open and showed her face. Pain, panic, and sadness were melded onto her face. Yet, what made Saren speechless was her pleading expression for him to see, to understand.

Not braking eye contact, he sat up astride to her. Shepard turned back to face the door. She desperately wanted to let this secret out in the open, but only to him. Why? She had no clue. "My Father and Mother were going through a rough time with their marriage. We were poor and lived in a shitty apartment. Both my parents worked all day, and at that time, a majority of nights. Sometimes we would only see them long enough to say good night. My father had a legal job working as a construction worker. My mother on the other hand, was a prostitute that told my father she was an accountant." Shepard sighed and placed her elbows on her thighs and held her head up with her fists. "Now with all that money she raked in you'd think we would have lived better, but she had a drug problem. I can't remember which drug she favored most, but I do remember all the needles. Anyways, with both my parents gone all the time, it was up to Daniel and me to take care of the twins. My older sister was lost to some street gang and spent her time with them."

Shepard looked over at him seriously, "I love my siblings, and I loved taking care of them despite being dealt a crappy hand…do you know what that means?"

"Just get on with the story." Saren scowled.

Shepard chuckled weakly and sighed, "When I was 10 my father got a promotion. A big one in which he'd make more money, and they would move us out of the inner city to a house outside of it in a good town with good schooling and less danger. Since this was a new start, a new life, he decided to get rid of baggage. My mother. Admittedly, She took it well, I mean she did already have a _'boyfriend'_."

Shepard sat back and stared at the ceiling. As if she was in a movie theater the film of her past played out before her on smooth ceiling. "The night we were moving out, we all had our bags packed besides my mother, and my father pulled Daniel and I into his room. I remember him smiling like he always did, looking back now it was pretty creepy how he was always trying to pretend that he was so happy... Anyways, he smiled at me and told me that someone needed to stay with my mom to make sure she was okay. My brother then asked him why... I sometimes wish he didn't... My father smiled at me and told me that he loved me, but he didn't like me." The two were silent. Shepard reliving the moment, and Saren staring at her confused. "He said I was like my mother, cold. That he wasn't even sure that I could feel, or love. He didn't want the rest of his children becoming like that... _'I mean can you even cry? After all that I've said you haven't even changed your expression from that cold one you always wear._'...after he said that, my brother started shouting and berating my father." Shepeard said. Then she kept quiet allowing silence to comfort her somewhat.

"What did you do?!" Saren asked impatiently.

"...I told Daniel it was fine. Then I helped them put their bags in my father's car, and saw them off."

Shepard then suddenly felt a sharp pain from her arm. Her hand shot to the source and felt the rough texture of the outside of Saren's hand. She didn't stop her hands from shaking, or the look of fear that appeared on her face as she looked up into Saren's fiercely glowing eyes. Even though it was dim she could see frustration on his face, and not pity like she had thought. "Why would you ever let anybody talk to you like that?!" Saren demanded, his grip on her arm tightening.

Shepard was speechless. All her reasons that she had spent so many years convincing herself of wouldn't form. For once nothing came to mind, but for some reason that wasn't completely an unpleasant feeling. "Before I knew why. I swear to you that I did! Now, after all these years, and after everything that's happened, I think it's because he's my dad. I was to heart broken by the reality of our relationship." She squeezed his hand and tried to pull off some of the pressure, but his grip was wrapped to tight. "Deep down I never liked him either. I hated how he would just always smile and pretend everything was perfect. I hated how when things got tough he ran off to work until things blew over." Shepard looked up at him with dejected eyes. "I hated him. I still do, but I wouldn't change anything."

"You wouldn't change the fact that he abandoned you?"

"No... It lead me to that researching contract. It put my siblings through college... War was something Daniel hated with every fiber of his being since he was young. Then the day after my mother died, my brother came to the apartment we lived in, and he saw me packing my things. That was when I told him about the contract, but not about the money I received from it since he would have never had accepted it. Then after I told him that I was going to become a soldier for the Alliance, he cried. Then I kissed him on the head and left." Shepard admitted. "You understand that don't you?" She asked him unsure. "You would have done anything for your brother. After all, you saved him from becoming something he would have hated."

They then stared at one another in understanding. Their situations weren't the same, but at the core they each knew about the loss and guilt that was the unfortunate byproduct of their choices. Everyday they carried around that fallout. It weighed down their emotions and ability to empathize with others. Yet, overtime the weight only grew heavier the longer they kept the pain from coming out. However, they would be liars if they didn't admit to the fact that right here and now, letting that pain show even just a little bit, allowed it to start turning into relief.

"I'm sure Nihlus has told you this, but you didn't deserve what your father did to you." Saren whispered sincerely after a few moments of silence. It made his stomach turn in knots trusting her like this with this side of him. Vulnerability was a terrifying notion to him, but he knew the ramifications of keeping it bogged down. It was his brother's downfall after all, and at this rate it probably would end up as his own.

With that thought he closed his eyes tight in hopes she wouldn't reject his opened hand of comfort. "And you don't deserve what your parents feel about you." She replied to him in a whisper as well. Saren's heart leapt at the fact she accepted his comforting words. He even believed her sincerity, which eased some of the self-hatred he had for himself for causing his family pain. It made him feel so good.

There was a genuine sort of feeling that arose when telling someone something personal. There was also something quite intimate about it as well. That person would know something about you that few or nobody at all, would ever know. They would never look at you the same way. In a way it was surrendering the illusion of control. An illusion the two Spectre's grasped for desperately, but now allowed it to float away.

Tranquility and silence surrounded the two. Feelings they took in happily for once. After some time Shepard smirked and stood up from Saren's bed. She then turned to him and gave him a small smile, even though she knew he couldn't see it. "By the way, I've never told Nihlus about my father. I've just told him about the contract and Daniel." She laughed when he looked at her with surprised eyes.

"Why tell _me_ then?" he asked in a high voice.

"Because I figured you would understand. More so, than anyone else I've ever come into contact with." Shepard said as she looked behind Saren. She stared intently as if she could see all the people she cared for, but would have a hard time understanding this part of her. Even though she dealt with people in the military, the idea of sacrifice was a tough subject. Yes, everyone in the military would sacrifice their life when it meant for the greater good, but when possibility of a situation where you had to sacrifice a loving relationship for the greater good happened, it tended to separate popular opinion. To a vast majority, those that chose to ended up being less favorable in their opinion. "Am I wrong?" Shepard asked somewhat afraid of hearing that answer.

"No… I can understand, but unlike me you have a chance reconcile. You get to have a chance to explain." Saren told her honestly.

Shepard stared at his cybernetic eyes again. When she first had ever seen Saren they passed each other at the docking bay. At the time she was a Lieutenant on Anderson's ship. She had been talking with one of her crew mates when Saren and Nihlus came walking down the catwalk. Nihlus was talking adamantly about something, and Saren was ignoring him. for the past week she had been reading an anatomy book about Turian's so anytime she had seen one she stared, and quizzed herself about the anatomical terms she had been memorizing. Then as she was quizzing herself by using Saren's face, he looked at her. Those cold machine eyes glared at her for a few moments then went back to staring ahead of him. It had left her frozen, but curious. That curiosity was sated, now as she stared into them. After sometime Shepard felt less intimidated by them.

She then lowered her head, and she stared at where she knew her feet were. "I'm breaking one of your rules, but I have to tell you that telling him the truth scares me." She said and let out a single rueful chuckle.

"I would imagine I would be as well," Saren replied. "You've really spun yourself into a complicated web."

Shepard nodded then snapped her head up to look at him. "Say that again!" She shouted excited.

Saren jerked slightly backward in confusion. "You've really spun yourself into a complicated web?" Then suddenly he felt Shepard's body tackle him backward. His face was smashed between what he assumed were her breasts since on either side of his face were two soft mounds of flesh. Roughly, he turned his head sideways since his long fringe kept his head from laying supine. Then quickly, he breathed in a gulp of air, "What now?!" He demanded at his wits end.

"That's it!" Shepard shouted gleefully as she hacked into Saren's Omni-tool. "I know how to track down those messages you've been getting!"


End file.
